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406 B,siegtd
. teners' One can therefore speculate that at least five to . one or rwo 11s · Sil( hundred people from the educated and presumably the better-off classes were familiar with the paper's contents. l ?. For this I rely on che many different kinds of arguments by Christopher Bayly in order ro push back the ~eri_od o'. the_emergence of nationalism, and more particularly, of patr1ot1sm m mneteenth-cencury Indian history. See his Origins of Nationality in South Asia: Patriotism and IN THE NAME OF SARKAR Ethical Government in the Making of Modern India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998) and Empire and Information: Intellignece Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780-1870 (New York: Cambridge he terms rebel government and rebel administration have been University Press, 1996). used interchangeably in this book. Neither term is meant to convey 18. Baqar also launched into a long passage about how Dehli's luxurious air T a coherent, organized and regimented structure of authority. As has been makes idlers of us all, which is why the rulers of yore forever avoided staying coo long in this city, and how the laddus and the pedas of noted, there were multiple power centres in the city, which sometimes Ghantewala, the famous sweets shop at Chandni Chowk, turn valiant clashed with each other. The main constituents of these centres of soldiers into cowards. See Dehli Urdu Akhbar, 23 August 1857, Collection power included leading members of Bahadur Shah's court, the CoM 2,NAI. set up by the soldiers, the commissariat headed by Mirza Mughal and 19. Translation of a letter from Moonshee Mahomed Bakarr, Editor of Delhi the staff of the commander of the Bareilly forces, Bakht Khan, who had Oordoo Akhbar, Newsletter during the Mutiny, File No. 50, 28 July 1857, been appointed lord governor. The administrative structure included Delhi Archives. also the police force of the city, the darogha or the superintendent of 20. See the introduction in chis book to the section "The Ideologue'. the magazine, the regiment officers including such prominent ones as Mir Rajah Ali, the head of the sappers and miners regiment, the officers in charge of hospitals and royal functionaries such as the darogha of supplies. Together these formed a skeletal administration sometimes at odds with each other, sometimes working in unison. By using the term administration, or government, my intention is to delineate structures of authority from the outward picture of anarchy. The orders issued by the head of any of these power centres could translate into action at the ground level, as for example, in the movement of goods or people. The response to these orders in the form of acknowledgements or refusal or issuing of receipts, mostly in writing, also indicates some degree of bureaucratic functioning and the pursuit of established norms. Moreover, the fact that ordinary crimes such as gambling and stealing continued to be prose~uted, that missing persons were searched and other kinds of complaints were registered and dealt with also points
407 • 408 Besieged In th, Na m, ofS. ,.i,., 409
ro the continuation of some kind of settled administration. It is in this drninistration, court functionari es and institutions r h' ed the a ras 10n or limited sense that the word government has been used here. lied by the British-police and Lawcourcs-c w f contro 00 ere a pare An additional reason for persisting with these terms is the wide 0 . D oghas of different royal departments such as the ice f:a .L rt ar ctory, me prevalence of the Urdu word Sarkar, meaning government, in these officer in charge of ~upplie~, ~he superintendent of the roy.J mint and documents. The term is used alike by the petitioners authorities and ochers participated m the city s governance. The royal secretariat which soldiers. All of them regarded the government to have changed hands 1.ssue d parwanas, shuqqas and firmans from the King remained active and the King to have assumed the reins of the new government. 1 t h rou gh out· Informally, the member. s ofBahadur. Shah's courc •nota bly Constant appeals and exhortations to 'reasons of government; 'needs his sons and grandsons, also enJoyed substantial authority. of government' and 'responsibilities of government' imply a rationality Tue emphasis on ghadar as well as on orde r and orga nization , of governance. Conscripted workers are deemed to be working for the which are the twin leitmotifs of this book, may seem immediately sarkar. Exhortations to officers and soldiers are also made in the name of contr adictorv,, but in a larger protean event, the presence of smaller the sarkar. Families of workers killed in the magazine conflagration are crrc. 1e s of authority and struccure are not altogether anomalous and assured compensation by and in the name of the sarkar. Whether or not this book attempts to highlight them. there was a unified structure in Delhi, many of the participants assumed it to be there and expected it to perform as such. The word sarkar here needs to be correlated to another word that recurs frequently in the Tue initial turmoil created by the arrival of soldiers at Delhi and Dehli Urdu Akhbar, amaldari. The latter uses the term to denote a change the widespread plunder had a dimension of class war.2 The soldiers' of government. 'The English have lost the amaldari at Panipat; is the mistreatment of the city's elites, even of the person of Bahadur Shah, phrase used by the paper to describe the fall of the British government has been well documented. 3 Ji wan Lal, a former judicial functionary who there. It denotes the taking over of actual governance by Indians and turned into a British spy and whose diary was compiled by Metcalfe as sometimes acted as a synonym for hukumat, governance. This needs part of his Two Native Narratives, reported that, to be placed in the context of the exact phrase used for government proclamations, even by the East India Company. The phrase used by . . . several respectable men were seized and made to carry the town crier went, 'The creation/ people belong to god, the country to burdens to intimidate them and extort money, all valuable the Emperor and the government [that is, amaldari] to the Company: property had by chis time been buried, and a private police The use of the word amaldari implies a change of control or governing force had been raised by the better class of citizens to protect authority and has nothing to do with sovereignty, which remains where themselves and their property.4 it always was, with the King. According to the implied understanding of the newspaper, the rebels were merely (re)taking over actual control Private guards continued to remain in place for the well-to-do, of administration, not instituting a new regime. almost right till the end. The house of Mufti Sadruddin Azurda, However, even as the structure of authority is designated as a an important judicial authority under the British and a leading city rebel government, it needs to be underlined that it is not exclusively intellectual, had to be guarded by the volunteers. 5 People's houses a government formed of rebel soldiers or civilians. It should more could be raided on the charge, or pretext, of protecting Britishers or properly be described as the rebel-royal government. While formal containing stolen goods and arms from the magazine. This, of course, rebel structures such as the CoM played a cruci~l role in running created room for ambiguity and high and low were affected alike. There 410 Bes ieged In the Name of Sarkar 411 they had already paid their dues. Money colle . omplaints of this kind in the section titled 'The Person I . ctions could s . are numerous c . . , . a me arb itrary di mens1ons; anybody and b omenmes ·c· Dilliwallas and the Upnsmg. The Dehl, Urdu Akhb~ Becomes P u bll · Hr assu b every ody could set L,_ here some ruffians, in this case, low-caste ones wer up as a royal collector ut equally, the poor could lod e uunse!f ase W reporte d a c . 6 . . ' e harassed and hope to get some relie£9 g a complaint if roaming the city dressed as soldiers. For th~ Delhi elites the uprising. Soldiers were deputed to tend to sick and particularly its initial days, was a rough penod. However, this picrure wounded c d All who absented themselves because of medical 0 mra es. of rurmoil needs to be offset by other features which were simultaneous edical cert1'fi cate to sancn'fy t h e1r. leave, the lack reasonsf h· required a to it. By the 21st of May, barely ten days after the soldiers arrived, it m . b din 1 . o w ich could lead 0 prosecution. A scon g so diers who came and hid . th . had become customary to hold an evening parade, and in his entry t f h m eary,and there were many o t em, could also be arrested on . ' for the day, Jiwan Lal reported that some rwo hundred soldiers were . . occasion. Accordin found missing on that date from the parade. Clearly, supervision and to Jiwan Lal, soldiers were tned, and shot, for showing cowardice. IO g Apart from the management of soldiers and suppli d organization were required to discover and to report this fact. . . . . ' es an money, the The administrative order extended to many areas, military and city's admimstranon had ~o to deal ~th _o~er necessities such as fixing civilian. The exact sequence and specifications of platoons which went prices of goods, announcmg and mamtairung a daily schedule of rates to the battle front, and a schedule of sorties and assaults were made and fixing the exchan~e rate for gold coins and for the older company almost every day, in consultation with the CoM. The decision was coins and new royal co ms. It had to ensure thar shops remained open and communicated in a written form to the regiments, which were duly well stocked and that official proclamations, resolutions and decisions acknowledged by their adjutants. The regiments deployed on guard were conveyed to all in the city. This everyday matrix of tasks was further or sentry duty at each of the gates were specifically appointed to those sharpened by the new kinds of regulations that were in put place in positions. As suggested by Sadiq-ul Akhbar, one of the rwo weekly the troubled months of 1857. These included resrtictions on favourite newspapers of Delhi, soldiers from specified units were stationed at each pastimes such as flying kites or consuming opium, gambling and blowing police station in order to buttress the authority of the police, possibly the bugles during Muharram. Military requirements necessitated a ban also to protect it from other soldiers, and these came to be known as on private possession of lead or any other commodity that could be police platoons.7 The arrival of every fresh batch of soldiers, or armies, used for manufacturing gunpowder and the implemenration of the ban from different parts of the country was usually known in advance and involved the police and soldiers deployed as guards. The administration arrangements were made to receive them and put them up in previously also had to arrange the funeral of soldiers and of unclaimed corpses. specified localities. 8 Periodically, the police also had to round up particular sections of the Military necessities required an inexhaustible supply of labour population: Punjabis, Bengalis and bankers. of many different kinds, both skilled and unskilled. Tailors, masons, Studying rebel governmentality11 in Delhi in 1857 sometimes leads thatchers, watercarriers, construction workers and many others were to very startling revelations. The prison, which was 'freed' and emptied required daily at the battle front and beyond, for military as well as of all prisoners early in the uprising, after 'the spirit of insubordination semi-military duties. These had to be sourced and kept in readiness, became rife in every class; as testified by Jiwan Lal, seemed to have been every day. This task was usually carried out by the police who often quickly filled up again. Even more significantly, in spite of the heavy resorted to coercion. Monetary contributions were levied repeatedly, money s h ortages the prisoners. were pai'd an all owan ce of half an anna 112 often targeting the same people but there was some record of who had every day. They found the amount inadequate and clamoured for more. . paid how much and wh en, an d peop Ie couId somenmes· be exempted 1·f A recent study of the coins minted by the rebel government of Delhi
-- 1111111111 - "
412 Besieged In the Nam, of Sarkar 413 establishes the self-consciousness of the regime as well as its aspirations throughout. The judicial courts continued fu . . C to ncnon albe· to be new and novel. 13 The lunatic asylum remained functional right functionaries. ases presented at the co ' It under new c . un Were pro d . through. Clearly, the administration not only felt responsible for manner as berore; recording of statemen CCSse in the same . . ts, presentati f . conducting the war but also attempted to fulfil the normal functions the mode of cross-examination, these norms d ~n ° witnesses, of government. In doing so, it was forced to form a relationship with force. The fu ncnorung· · ofth ese courts should haan pracncesbeen remain• ed in th its subjects which was in many ways unprecedented in pre-modern of widespread anarchy. However, even th veli efirstcasualty . e po ce could . South Asia. At moments, it had to act as the guardian for the subjects, ock up people at will. Older functionaries fth not simply l 0 e royal co h to take care of their well-being and to ensure that their losses were earlier exclusively served the royal household urt w O had now came to work fo th compensated at the same rime as it had to exploit them for labour and wider rebel government. The darogha of the barjkh r e . d l . ana or the royal ice resources. This will become clearer after a brief look at the aftermath factory continue to supp y ice to the royal and p mabl . resu Yother elite of the explosion of the government-run armaments manufactory which households and strongly complained to the Kingabo th . . . . . ut e mtervennon of the soldiers m its management. The darogha-i-sama ffi f was called the magazine. n, o cer o the The explosion of the magazine on the 7th of August brought into royal household became the officer in charge of supplying tents and salience the relationship of the government to its servants as well as to marquees to the army. Officials who could not be yoked directly to the subjects whom it was supposed to be serving. A terrible explosion the cause of the government found themselves eased out of auth onty.· convulsed the magazine, over five hundred labourers working there lost The Jama Masjid was wholly taken over by the soldiers, especially b their lives while shrapnel and debris were strewn all over the ciry. 14 For the jihadis who rurned it into a kind of base camp for themselves.~ two days the fire kept raging, the administration made several efforts a result, the darogha of the Jama Masjid found himself redundant and to douse it, demanding annihilators, pyrotechnists and any other urged the King to direct the.jihadis to recognize his overlordship of specialists it could manage. The police did yeoman service during that the mosque, to no avail.16 This fusing of the royal household with the accident and came in for much praise from the newspapers. In response, wider strucrures of government may at first sight seem a throwback to the government immediately moved to take insurance for those who the previous ways of government. That would, however, be misleading had lost their lives in the explosion, promising compensation, jobs and because this was not government for the King or even by the King. pensions to the family members of all who had lost their lives. Welfare This will become clearer through a close examination of the police of the subjects, it appears, was an important consideration. One offshoot establishment which came to form the most important executive wing of this incident was that furious soldiers grew more obsessed with the of the government. possible treachery and connivance of Hakim Ahsanullah Khan, the King's physician and confidant, in bringing this about. They surrounded Police17 his house, humiliated his family and did not let go until the King offered Prior to the uprising the police in Delhi was under the control of the his own variant of the later saryagraha by refusing to appear in public British magistracy. How and why it moulded itself to seryice the reb~I and by announcing his decision to go and become a sweeper at the shrine cause is something that still needs investigation. Most of the officers in of Bakhtiyar Kaki, popularly known as Khwaja Saheb, regarded as the charge of police stations came from upper-caste Muslim families with patron saint of Delhi, at Mehrauli. 15 ties. to the local gentility. Perhaps it was the prestige of the Mughal Other than the well-known components such as the police there court which drew the higher police officials to it so easily. Moreover, were other administrative units and positions that remained in place ......
In the Name o,JSa c_ '""' 415 414 Besieged vernment, the soldiers and the ordinary p I . ha! dispensation, the kotwal, the city police chief, Was the go . . eop e, it was the olice . h acted as the maJor interface and the int ediary. P in the older Mug_ t officials of the city and normally reported wh ic erm Natu all f he most importan olice was called upon to perform tasks that ·Ii r Y. one O t Ki 18 In medieval kingdoms, the kotwal combined the P . were ear er wholl directly to the ng. · II Ii ffi · •de its purview. Y . f h executive chief as we as a po ce o cial. Thus 0 urs1 . . the funcoons o t e . . . . ' e police were petitioned when people's hoUses I d his authority, 1t did not prove very difficult 1h were P undered b when the Ki ng exer te . . . . diers when women ran away or children went miss" wh Y a:. f the police force to switch their loyalties to him. The so l ' . d c I . , ing, en shops for the omcers o . . . . ains were reqwre ror so diers camps when affr . d th,· s by corresponding directly with the leadmg police an d gr . . ' ays oceurred King encourage . . _.,een citizens, and when the administration had to imp! der a:. A h • express bidding, on the occasion of the festival of Baqrid be•" ementor s omcers. t 1s . . . , commandeer resources. Police duties could range fr . all the thanadars appeared before him and paid him a ritual tribute an d om arrangmg for a charpoy and fuel for cremating the dead body of a subedar, called nazar. In this way the rebel administration successfully managed 21 to ascertaining ~hether those standing bail had the property they to reintegrate the police into the older symbolic, ritualistic world of claimed, 22 to getting the refuse cleared from the city, 23 to making sure obedience an d service· . 19 that dead bodies were allowed through by the guards at the city gares,24 The organization of war as well as the maintenance of a general to issuing general proclamations and informing the citizenry of the administrative order in Delhi was in the main the work of the pre- orders of the commissariat and the CoM25 and issuing notice of a existing police force. Working mainly on the orders of the commissariat general headed by Mirza Mughal, the C-in-C, as well as on the instructions levy,26 to awarding and maintaining contracts to different contractors 27 of the CoM, the police formed the bulwark of the administrative for shops. Its indispensability to the administrative set-up of the order of the city. In an early attempt to stake claim over it, the rebels' makes a srudy of the police establishment an exploration not King wrote to the officers, or thanadars, of all the thanas or police just into the management of the uprising but also of the very nature of stations in the city, in the second week of the uprising, urging them the rebellion. It emerges that the administration kept itself going by the to remain in position and to follow commands issued to them. The force it could exert on the subalterns-the subalterns who serviced this ease with which the old administrative machinery began to service rebellion through skilled and unskilled labour, as well as the subalterns the rebels' cause was truly remarkable. The daily reports of the thanas within the police force, the barqandazes, the ordinary constables, who show that almost all thanadars and their subordinates remained actually implemented the orders on the ground. in place; in fact, there were new recruitments. By the end of May, Before exploring in greater detail the functioning of the police, it some degree of order had clearly been fully established. The Dehli may help to get an idea of their distribution and arrangement in the Urdu Akhbar remarked on this when it praised the new kotwal for city, particularly since these terms and positions recur many times in his effectiveness. 20 the documents. The kotwali was the main police station of the city and The soldiers evidently saw the police as a representative of the royal was headed by the kotwal, the chief of police. The kotwal had twelve establishment or of the government that had been established because police stations or thanas under his charge, each of which was headed from the first few days they demanded rations, provisions and shelter by a thanadar (also called a darogha). In addition to these,jamadars from the polic e. Th e c1v1· ·1 1an· popul ation of Delhi too recognized the and mohurrirs, or clerks; were the other officer ranks. Finally,. there police as the representan·ve ofth e new. government that had come mto. were the barqandaz, the semi-armed ordinary policemen or conStables being because they co mp Iaine · d to th e po1 ice. about the soldiers, exces·ses who did most of the running around. We do not have the exact figures and expected to be redre sse d • In t h e sym b.1ot1c . relationship between for the number of policemen, employed in Delhi. But the daily diary In Name of Sarkar 417 416 Btsieged the . h that on 27 July there were in all forty-two sulphur, saddle makers, molasses wood h k k ah s ows people pulses ' ' ' us sellers of the otw 1h re was a kotwal and two deputy kotwaJs 'gh shoesmiths, ekkas, mares, carts, sweepers, butchers blacks' ~enters, d there. e ' ei t employ~ d ks one ·amadar and twenty-five barqandazes ds flour, milk, sugar and doctors, and this is n1' filths, com, h rr1rs or er ' 1 · 0 f cur , . . 0 Ya selection mo u I d at the kotwali, ten were Hindus and thirty Even as the police conscnpted and requisitio ed u _ . · ch eople emp aye . Were . . n woour it could also e P_ hil the relioion of two cannot be determined. Wed , _,, up for their grievances. In one of many such . . Muslims, w e i,- on t sp= nuss1ves, the k al how many of these had been employed from before th .sed the question of wages of forty doolie-bearers wh O h d ocw know exac cl Y 'nl . d . e rai f h c 'gh a beensent . b the numbers had certai y increase smce the uprisin 28 the platoon o t e rorty-ei t regimenr.32 As did th th muony ut . g. co 33 • . e anadar of . th n'sing, the thanadar was paid four rupees a month th ..,..urlanan Gate. Whatever 1t supplied, however th Ii During e up , e J.' • 34 ' e po ce expected old barqandazes were getting two rupees an~ the new ones fifty paise the price to_ be paid. Instead o~ the demand being routed through the each.29 Extrapolating from these figures, taking twenty men for each c mm.issanat or the CoM, soldiers could dir-,.,.1...- ... , go to th e concerned O 35 chana, and considering that there were twelve thanas in the city, one can thana and ask for supplies._ Soldiers could also write directly to the 36 arrive at a rough figure of four hundred for the total police strength in police in case of other requrrements. the city. In addition co the regular policemen, every thanadar also had Apart from trying, often ineffectually, to protect the residents &om some sweepers, drum-beaters and chowkidars, the last paid by local the excesses of the soldiers the police faced fundamental problems even 30 dues, which functioned under him. in making arrangements for their supplies. Grain merchants posted to As should be evident by now, the police was at the forefront of serve the encampments at Delhi Gate protested to the kocwali that the collecting supplies, provisions and labour that were essential to waging men of the platoon rarely paid up for the wares they bought and they a war, in addition to performing normal policing duties. Money showed cruelty to the shopkeepers. In this case, the King inscribed on contributions were raised through the police it was the force which the margins of the application an instruction for the secretary of the 37 arrested, detained, browbeat and escorted bankers and merchants. The commissariat to deduct the dues from their salaries. Similar was the supply of provisions to different regiments was also the responsibility case of the shopkeepers billeted at the lunatic asylum who complained chat soldiers forcibly took their goods and beat them up in the bargain, of the police. Thus the police had to make sure that enough shops were 38 billeted and open for business wherever the regiments were stationed. and if things continue in the same way they would go on a strike. The In addition to supplying the regiments with food ( and with delicacies relations between the soldiers and the citizens were always &aught with 31 tension and the police had to constantly negotiate its way through this like puri-kachauri and sheerini as the occasion demanded ), the police also had to provide resources for the war effort. This included not just logjam of dire necessity, lack of money and the refusal of the soldiers the materials of war but also the manpower required to fight it. Coolies, to abide by the compulsions of the administration. . labourers, bakers, water carriers, farriers, masons, anything and anyone The kotwali records are replete with efforts to summon the leading that was required was supplied by the police. A very large section of the bankers and traders of each area. Dealing with bankers and raising Mutiny Papers consist of documents to and from different thanadars. money presented a double bind for the police. On the one hand they At a &antic pace, handling nearly a hundred documents a day, the were constantly commanded to arrest, detain and put under house arrest th~nas provided for or managed this complex gamut of tasks. A list of recalcitrant bankers and merchants who refused to make contributions. ob;ects and persons they were providing makes for staggering reading: On the other hand they were constancly restrained by orders urging them to avoid offending the public. The thanadar of Chandni Chowk oxen, cobblers, coolies, water carriers, cattle, rations, doolie-bearers, nd conveyances, grocers, gunny bags, daggers, spades, axes, ghee, baskets, wrote to the kotwal reporting on' the bankers of the famous a rich " In tht NamtoJSarkar 419 418 Besieged eral order banning cow slaughter was p cd . , ople disappear inside their houses and d agen f ass 111th. N I where, Some pe o st of the King and o the C-in-C. The poli e Qty at the Katra ee hil most of chem make one excuse or anoth be h e h b cewasnoc nl . response w e er ake sure that t e an was implemented• . 0 Y urged not give any b y and are forever on the lookout for creatin co fl\ . , It was also chis servant at a . k g e preventive steps to ensure that cow , persuaded co eep . l .ntS: Accordingly he was sending some banker co t ak s weren t sla gh 46 bl making comp 31 s t from circulating the order to all the th dar u tered. rrou e or , buke will be administered to them for unle Apar ana s and · . h . chat 'A strong re 39 ss oping the money will not come forth'. Sometimes it could eral proclamation everywhere, the kotwal wrote to all th JSswng a that happens c d . . fr h gen d h' Ii f ethanada . ch police could rorwar petitions om t e peopl king them to sen 1m a st o all the cow-ow . M . rs work in reverse, e . . . e as 47 Th bl rung uslims in their . b exempted from making money contributions as th ecrive areas. e pro em arose when the Ki . requesnng to e e •~an~ 'ndicated to the C-in-C in the case of the poor people . eructing the kotwal to collect all the cows ow cd by th al 1ns 48 n eM 115 lims depury kotw I d to keep them in the kotwali. In order to furth . Bazaar area.40 But excessive zeal could earn censure. lhe an d . . er ensure that no of ch e F3lZ k al - same file contains an admonition from the otw to the thanadar of slaughter happene surrepnnously, the C-in-C wrote to thekocwal to Kashmiri Gate, reprimanding him for raiding the shop of Bahauddin count all the skins of dead animals and the amouru of grease available without permission. He is instructed specifi~~y that no house is to be with the butchers, an order that was sent to all the leading butchers as well.49 One can only wonder what this would have meant for raided without permission from the kotwal1 th Sometimes the casks assigned to the police required an impossible citizenry at large for the p~lic~ could arrest any Muslim on any one 0; degree of resourcefulness, while simultaneously putting enormous the following charges: sacnfiang cows, owning cows and not givin an · kin h · g powers into its hands. The kotwal was asked, in one communique from undertaki ng, possessing s s or s owmg an intention of killing cows. the C-in-C,- to make sure chat no one bought or sold plundered or looted The section of documents on cow slaughter gives important glimpses articles, and anyone caught doing so was to be strongly punished.42 A into the mentality of the government and the techniques it adopted as similar occasion was when Bakht Khan went to the kotwali and asked it tried to prevent cow slaughter. the officers to issue a general proclamation that anybody found flying The biggest stumbling block for the police was the presence of an kites, discharging fireworks, idly firing a weapon or flying pigeons was enormous body of armed soldiers who would demand things off them liable for punishment.43 Sometimes the police, already overburdened, but not allow them to function without hindrance. Not only would could display zeal for taking on more work. On 24th July, one and a soldiers interfere in police work but they would also lean on the police to, half months into the uprising, it struck the kotwal that 'Clandestine significantly, legalize actions which they had undertaken directly. They gambling continues again in the areas commanded by thanadars posted would arrest people and bring them to the kotwali or to a particular in the city'. He therefore wrote directly to the King to ask whether the thana, or assault the thana and free a particular accused as they saw gamblers should be peremptorily arrested.44 Then, as now, gambling fit. 50 The soldiers guarding the Farrashkhana gate routinely asked for 51 came accompanied by other vices. On 3rd August Mir Akbar Ali, a bribes to allow the movement of goods and documents. Sometimes resident of Faiz Bazaar lodged a complaint stating that there was a soldiers would interfere with the police when they were busy raising gambling house near his home and that the gamblers used abusive supplies or commandeering labour.52 Then there was interference in its language and stared at the females of his home. 45 investigative agency, well illustrated by the case of the prostitute Vaziran. The dilemmas and problems faced by the police in acting at once as After she was arrested on the charge of theft, a large group of soldiers the preventi~e arm as well as the chief executive wing of the government descended on the kotwali and forcibly freed her. An exasperated kocwal were exemplified on the occasion of the Muslim festival of Baqrid, when reported to the C-in-C, 'The situation is this that the soldiers inlerfere In th, Nam, •'Sa,L - 420 Besieged 1 '"'" 421 . h' and this prostitute has been brought to the thana . .ng it was not a part of their duties. Wh L J ,n everyt mg • • • . . in safl en as.J.CQ tor er•53 In a direcove on 1st July, the C-m-C wrote t dead camels strewn around Daryagan,i th k cmovc carcasses severa I cases earli · . . o o f . ,, c Otwal refused the kotwal asking him to stop soldiers from forcibly searching houses d clarified, to the King, no less, that it was th d to comply an f e uryofM·1 A-· . h th • cruction thar'wirhout the order of the government and th the superintendent o roads, andhe should be • .J. ~ nuur Ali, Mt ew . e . b m,ouc to do it. 60 f the informer no [forced] searches will be conducted at an Jbere couId sometimes e graver prob! In presence o , . y ems. one of th 54 cuments which allows the barqandaz to ,__1_ ha e rare respectable person's house. These cases may at first sight confirm the do 5r--,a rqandaz '----, ey an order in the middle of the night He . re,usc:a picture of anarchy. However, we should not completely dismiss the ro Ob 1s reported to h . that 'Such urgent orders come every day, we are nor . . ave said constant attempts of the administration to impose order and to make . th . • h gomg our JIUt no'!ll we will only go e morrung, w ereupon, a 1____ , ' the soldiers amenable to discipline. m panicked · th 'Ifth' h =wrotero the C-in•C saying at 1s appens and the bar _.J __ The police force itself was regularly monitored for discipline, • d th h qanuaus, refuse to attendance and punctuality, All rhanadars were urged to maintain a obey the officers or ers en ow will government wo rk ocL. do ne., Even regular daily diary, a practice of the past, and send it punctually to the earlier the co~cerned thanadar had sent in a note complaining about his kocwali.55 Every circular, whether from the kotwal and thanadars, or barqandazes: If every barqandaz gets the courage to do ghadar6I then parwanas, orders from higher-ups, was supposed to be copied in hand they would do ghadar whenever an urgent task comes up. Therefore I and a receipt signed on the document itself. When circulars returned submit that Ghazi Khan etc., the four barqandazes, should be dismissed which would prove salutary to the others otherwise th,.,, would unsigned, it indicated absenteeism, a misdemeanour which did nor • Q go unnoticed even in spite of the turbulence. 56 The vigilantism over obey anyones orders. police discipline and responsiveness seems to have been an area of We don't know whether the barqandazes were actually dismissed concern from the very beginning. This is evident from the case of Faiz but it is noteworthy that neither the thanadar nor. the kotwal had the Mohammed Khan, a merchant artisan and resident ofTurkman Gate, power to dismiss or appoint anyone under their command. Requests who made a complaint that on the night of Id his house was broken from the kotwal or thanadars seeking dismissal of blind or infirm or old into but when he went into the thana to lodge a compl:Lint, he couldn't barqandazes or their transfer had to be routed through the C-in-C.63 find anyone there.57 What is remarkable here is the eagerness shown Even as small a matter as the room rent that a barqancbz could pay 64 by the thanadar to deny the charge of dereliction of duty, whether had to be cleared by the C-in-C. The thanadar of Guzar Itiqad Khan, Talab Khan, wrote on May stating that the older employees of he was doing this out of fear of censure or out of a lure for reward Faiz 27 the thana have not been paid their salaries of two months, let alone the remains unclear. 58 65 Not only was the performance and attendance of the thanadars newer ones. The police was functioning as the strongest arm of the ghadar but it was not an arm which was free to move on its own. While well monitored, their jurisdiction too was closely watched. Although its material conditions of work-cramped spaces, delayed salaries, they were being asked to perform all sorts of extra-policing duties, they insufficiency of staff-may paint a picture of chaos, the restrictions were not allowed to step beyond their exact imprimatur during their execution. On 19 August, when the kotwal, replying to an order of the on its field of operations can be read to substantiate the no~on of ghadar, as well as detract from it. a scenario where the police was C-in-C, wrote that the particular case being enquired into had already In been compromised, he earned a sharp rebuke from General Taleyaar the chief executive wing of an emergency government, it would not .. c · , all rts of powers to itself. That Khan, member secretary of the CoM.59 If the jurisdiction of the kotwals h ave b een surpnsmg ror 1t to arrogate so . . d k t check on its powers was closely guarded, on occasion, the police too could refuse a chore by the a d ministration attempte to eep a constan In th, Nam , o' Sa L 1 T 424 Besieged In the N •me o'Sa L. 1 r.,,, 425 important. about the disciplinary order of the city. The administrative tepping on too many toes. Apart fr th s d' h h .. om esoldier h norms rem-,;ned 1·n place almost to the day that the city was assaulted•, thwarte 1t, t e aut orit1es were not . f: s w o constant1 In avour of . y there are a large number of documents dating from 14th September, coo many summary powers. 1he police, th .c &ranting the police ,r di . A . ercrore, had the day of the British assault. . without onen ng 1t. n impossible task all . to t.lx the public at t1mesb Then there were disturbances created by prostitutes of different more difficu 1t b y t h e la ck of money. Furth . , ut made even . d . th er, given the th hues. The establishments of courtesans and prostitutes were points as acnng, an given e presence of such way c police W . . a mass of soldi of congregations for soldiers and civilians and clashes often ensued eXpect the cmzens to be coerced into silen B th tty, one would . CC. Ut e cvidcn there. We have already encountered the case of Vaziran, the prostitute number of complamts by the people shows thac -.1. cc of a vase . . th '"'llttthanaband . with military clout, but there were several others. Kunwar Lal, the faith in the a dmi rustranon e people were th l . oning . ra er ooking to . f, thanadar of Dariba, wrote to the kotwal at the end of June reporting succour. This was true for complaints agains th . . It to or . . . t c police itself Tu the case of the dispute between a prostitute, Sundar, and her tenant people could speak out against 111.JUStices and,...,_... th · e 76 Th li -r-• e government to Abdurrazzaq. Over a dispute about payment of rent, three soldiers respond to them. e po ce could not always bend . . CVetyoncto1tswil1• then present in her quarters came and fired upon Abdurrazzaq. After intransigence was encountered not merely among th .. L, . ' . . e Swr.utcrns It was the thanadar had brought both of them to the thana a further set of ressing mto service but also by other citizens: the Pun·ab· tail P . 1 orwho soldiers dropped in, this time claiming to speak for Abdurrazzaq: 'He uarreled with barqandazes or Afzal the ruffian who c.._. , . q . . •rcca conscnpted is our brother, we will take him and this prostitute to the court of the labourers or the cmzens of Chandni Chowk who complained . t Commander in chief'. The thanadar managed to stay his ground and their bullying thanadar. agams send the disputed parties to the kotwali for the case to be decided as By and large, the police force held its discipline. Thcrc are plenty 74 the kotwal saw fit. Sundar Kasbi managed to make a name for herself. of documents where thanadars express helplessness in executing In an undated communication the clerk of the Dariba thana wrote to commands because of lack of money or unavailability of goods. Bur the kotwal requesting him to reprimand a bad character called Gopal there is not a single document where a thandar could be said to have who frequented her place. His visits, he wrote, could cause an 'untoward displayed insubordination of any kind. Instances of outright refusals 75 incident and that ifhe continues he will be punished'. are equally conspicuous by their absence. There may have been other The reason the police became so indispensable to the administration instances of a barqandaz refusing work which I have not stumbled upon, and to the war effort in Delhi was because it was the only organized but instances of outright insubordination are rare for tbe subordinates body available to the rebel government. The magnitude of tasks and officers alike. Considering that the thanadar could neither appoint the government was compelled to perform in 1857 were without nor dismiss a barqandaz of his free will, the lack of documented precedent in the pre-modern era. Governing a city, fighting a war and instances of insubordination is immediately noticeable. The remarkable commandeering resources from within the city-these called for an achievement therefore was the degree of order that could still be, and exceptional bureaucratic and disciplinary effort. In order to successfully was, maintained. The bureaucratic norms that had been established wage the war effort the administrative order in Delhi perforce needed for the mode of ·receiving grievances as well as for tbe way in which a mechanism to implement and act on its orders, which were, often, they were addressed remained in force. As tbe inordinate am~unr _of coercive in nature. At the same time the ~dministration was relying paperwork indicates,. . ord ers an d comman d s 1ssu· ed by the comnussanat. . th Tue tbanadars, with the quite intensively on public morale and support. At all times, therefore, could reach a parncular thana on e same da Y· . . ly to dozens of nuss1ves the police had to walk a tightrope between executing decrees and not h elp of their clerical staff, coul d prod uce or rep ..,,, In tht Name of Sarkar 427 426 B~ieged this implies that carriers or runners we . ccionary mentio~ re~gio~ or the cause ~f religion and country. tione d ab ove, re police gap is inmgwng, given the surfett of emotional appeals daily, As men h' respondence from one place to another. Every fun . al • 1· deologtc · !di W: h Ii · I do carry t is cor h ,n.;< 1 manons to so ers. as t e po ce s1mp y ing its in place cob the C-in-C to the kotwal or to the t anadars was copied P,..... ial proc a . . . order sent Y d d 'n the reuister of the thana or the kotwali. Not in ofliclike tt. h a d always done? Was tt servtng. the King,. not the wider . h d and recor e I o- . ere m an zealously produced, they were also supposed to duty, Wh did the loyalty of the police force lie~ Tue bureaucratic 1 were documents uprising· rps seems to provide the strongest impelling force for on Y d d properlv.77 It is telling that thanadars who had re of the co be sealed an covere , . na tu . d Ji to take only one instance, to send them to the C- . ccions. conscnpte coo es, . . . 1tsa . . d getting a receipt for It and mststed that the workers in-C, ms1ste on . 'd R · t c r all goods and persons were sent at all times-this be pai . ece1p s 110 . . mplicates the coercion through which many of those Delhi was peculiar compa~ed to other centres of the uprising in so far 1mperattve co . as that it did ~ot ~ave a h~nterland to feed off. There was no body of thmgs. were procured · The receipts. do not necessarily add up. to any particular reward for any of them; m fact, some. o_f them remain unpaid talukdars sending m supplies and men to service the cause..79 Soldiers themselves, but they are an indication of the relanvely healthy nature of were more or less left to fend for themselves, therefore they constant! the administrative order that had taken charge of the city. impressed the authorities with their needs. The constant importunario~ While affrays and fracas between civilians and soldiers were quite of the soldiers may seem to detract from their spirit and devotion, but common, as was the violence involved in plundering and looting, there it needs to be underscored that they had nowhere else to turn to. Tue were distinct limits to this violence. It is remarkable that in spite of all lukewarm attitude, even downright hostility, of the residents of the the violence, terror and tyranny, very few murders or assassinations city towards the army was criticized not just by the soldiers but also seemed to have taken place in the city. The police records don't mention by the editor of the Dehli Urdu Akhbar who found their lack of fervour any single incident of murder, very few merchants or bankers are acrually quite alarrning.80 As Gautam Bhadra has pointed out in the case of killed. House arrest is another matter, but extortion of bankers does Lucknow, the soldiers' fear and suspicion of courtly circles originated not seem to extend to abduction or murder for gain. In fact the Dehli from the awareness that the interests of the elite and those of the Urdu Akhbar expressly praised the efficiency of the police and quoted common insurgents were not identical.81 Further, the soldiers' insolent others who echoed this sentiment.78 There was pandemonium in the behaviour and the display of wanton luxury has been described by the city but it did not endanger the safety of life. same author as a 'festival of the oppressed' denoting festivity as well as While the police served as the main executive wing of the rebel defiance against the higher orders.82 The picrure that emerges of the government in Delhi, it is difficult to discern the motivations which soldiers in these documents has to be offset against other accounts informed its actions. The documents do not show any particular which describe their bravery and desperation in battle. Being in nature partisa~ship of the police towards the rebels, If they had sympathy administrative documents, the Mutiny Papers do not throw any light or feeling for the rebel side, it is not reflected in the documentary on the emotions involved in fighting the war but as shown by other evidence. Tue offi ·al f h ci nature o t e correspondence, conducted and accounts, for instance the Dehli Urdu Akhbar which is included here, composed by pr 0 fi · l 'b . . ess1ona sen es m all cases, never betrays any there was no dearth of these. Tue soldiers were after all fighting a emotional attachments I xh . h · n e ornng t e subordinates or in directives or commands issued to ffi h . , voluntary war, without resources. exh . 0 cers, t ere•is a near universal absence of th ortat1on on relioious . . However, formal structures of authority such as the C-in-C, e 1:i· or patnonc grounds. At no point does any CoM, the police and the functionaries of the royal establishment were .. 428 Besie~d In th, Norn , •'S. t • • 1 , .., 429 only as important to the city's running as the countless smaller power erior ranks of the Bnnsh armv I su P . ,. n some wa s th· . centres which were spread throughout the city. These could take the -ended to other areas, for mstance the f Y is inversion er.• . . Use O Briti h was form of groups of soldiers, platoons billeted at the police station, songs when assaultm~ their positions.BS s army lllarching groups of armed strong men in the locality or even the establishments 1he CoM at Delhi was a formalization of this . h newly-acq . ed of the leading courtesans, singers and prostitutes. Poring over these Similar counci1s of war, wit soldiers leading th lllr power. documents creates an impression of a miasma of panic and suspicion ther places as well. Lucknow saw the for . em, Were formed at o ' . •86 . tnation of a'rni!i ' descending on the city, a scenario where beggars, mendicants, lunatics well as a parliament, These mstitutions as d tary cell as . d h . . serre the soldi ' nd differenttate t etr bid for power fro . ers power funeral processions, nothing was beyond the pale of suspicion. n: a 1 . events of the uprising and the rebel takeover of the city turn everything 1he governments they sought to form can b d . pensations. . hi e escnbed as fo f constituttonal monarc es. Scholars have us··-" th rrns o into a political act. Opening or closing shops, stocking goods or not, u.t11y seen e upris · underselling, aimless wanderi'ng, carrying flour, carrying lead, visits war of restoration, which attempted nothing rn th ing as a . ore an a conservative to prostitutes, consumption of opium, nothing remains simple or throwbac k to th e ear Ii er practtces. However, the soldi , . . . fth fusaI ers councils were apolitical as in the past. One can call this the personalization of the an emphattc assertton o ere to simply follow th Id "' . . eo • vveshould 83 distinguish between the presttge of the traditional con-. d th public and the politicization of the personal. Everything could be an . . - ... an eactual ower enJoyed by them m rebel adrninistrations.87 In . th . act of enmity or subversion; vigilantism could sometimes turn inward P . . . asserong e1r too, as when the soldiers clash with the menial police officers checking difference from the nobility as well as the common people, the soldiers their bags. When this is placed against the intense physical mobility rried to combine the new committee or council with older fonns of in the city, the movement of troops, police, labour, guards for private consultative assemblies such as panchayats.88 As I have shown in the and public establishments, the picture of flux gets further accentuated, section earmarked for the CoM, the word court' came to stand as a verb further justifying the nomenclature of ghadar. Yet this ghadar was not for a widespread practice, so kot karna became an acceptable mode of without its own structures of order. The despotism of the soldiers reaching a consensus. Soldiers clid court' to devise a suitable punishment was subject to checks, accountability and prosecution, in many cases. for a negligent soldier, or to scrutinize the conduct of their superior As the section on in this book on soldiers shows, there was also some officers and could even seek to dismiss them.89 It is possible chat in deterrence at work. these instances the word court represents the persistence of the military The uprising provided a huge boost to the prestige and influence of court martial-a practice which soldiers would have been familiar with the soldiers and the officers among them consciously harnessed this by because of the service in the Company army. promoting themselves to the highest ranks. Generals Sidhara Singh, The ghadar of 1857 was a radical moment in several ways. The Hira Singh, Taleyaar Khan, Shyam Singh, formerly junior officers in the attacks on British people and property, the destruction of official colonial army, promoted themselves to ranks and positions which could records, the burning of moneylenders' ledgers-and the humiliation match the princes and nobles in their grandeur. Posts such as colonels, they were subject to-is mirrored at Delhi in the constant attacks ere was turbulence; generals, brigade majors, even governor generals, were awarded, or on the merchants, bankers an d th e we II •0 If.• Th . d dissolution of established arrogated to themselves, by these former subaltern officers. At one point there was rumour; there was a th reat to an . fi · al soldiers, the bes t m the kotwal was seriously confused about the protocols of addressing authority· there were over 70,000 pro ession ds ' 0 1 ers J.oined by chousan these newly elevated officers.84 The soldiers were trying to match the the world; there were about 30,00 vo unte ' . . di indars servicemen, poets, pomp of the traditional feudal nobility, as well as the formality of the of ordinary people, maulv1s, pan ts, zam ' ,.. --c. 430 BeJicgcd In th, N a,.,, oJS.i¼,, sc ho I ars, gamb lers ' sellers of bhang, all of these were involved i'n th e esent themselves to the King, get hi ' 43! war rorc De 1h 1.. Mobs were looting houses on. the charge,. . or pretext, t hat pr ·a1 11s . . s apprOVa) . . h b ·cants were sheltering or supporting the Bm1sh. Crowds on the offic1 ro before Joining the batt( and register thCinsclv th em a 1 . . Were neoples' war but the people needed, or ,.1 _ . • e. It rnay have be es . • paoingsoldiers. Princes were rediscovenngpower· p r -- . . . 92 S ucs1red an f!i en the resISang ram 0 -- . , aupers before paroopanon. tray deserters fr , o cia.l endo dizing themselves; the price of gold was touching th ky . orn the B . . h rsernenr were aggran . . . e s ; demanded compensanon for the loss of ntis arrny routincl the British were dressing like Indians; the arnues fighnng against the which they had perchance missed out. Pay an_d for the plunder Y were playing English bands and their songs; ~e sh~rif were being fore~ ,r ia1 1t was irn on co achieve an omc rank. Former soldi po~t for pco le to eat kaddu and baingan; women were eloping with lovers; courtesans . iii' ers needed aclcn p of their ranks , c1v ans applied for spccifi . . owledganenr and prostitutes were thriving; Indians were appointing themselves c pos1nons. It co collect a ban d of men, form a unit Was possible commissioners and collectors and ~lonels ~d generals; grain was being , th . . th , earn an of!icia.l po . . then fl aunt ones au on~ m e city. This is shown s1non and hoarded; a cacophonous contest for informanon was continuing apace in ~""inst one Banda Husam by a woman wh by the complainc the midst of the felling of telegraph wires; ideologues were thundering °b- o l'Cported chat, 'Wh disturbances broke out he collected a group f en the the language of apocalypse and doomsday and of the hundredth 0 people and · · before his lordship and was awarded the rank of asubcdar petition~ anniversary of the battle of Plassey, and reminding their 'Hindu committing excesses upon peop)e'.93 The Prospcct of a goodand now h~ u brothers of the Mahabharata and of Krishna -a world did turn upside may have been as important in attracting people to mili oppo~~ down in Delhi. The soldiers' initial violation of courtly etiquette shows . B . . h c Jin Th Ury service, m some cases,_as ann-. ~ns .ree g. is placessomclimicson the cc impatience with traditional protocol. The rebellious soldiers, who were of voluntansm exh1b1ted m the uprising. ckgr radical enough to threaten traditional rulers, to modify monarchical By the end ofAugust and the h,.,,;"";--of~-L .1.. .. systems of government and on occasion, as shown later, challenge their ~b"uw~ """t''cuwcr, wepamapana at Delhi were well aware of the impending doom. Emonmoru from the own officers, did not attempt to refashion the world, in spite of being officers as we~ as ~e leaders, in this phase, impress upon the people the steeped in devotional cults90 which condemned power and material salience of this being a light about deen and dharam and thac they ought wealth. Why was this so? What we need to uncover is the nodes along to fight to the bitter end. In this endgame, the government looked co the which this radicalization proceeded and the processes that accelerated wider population as a support base which ratified its existence, as well as or decelerated it. What did the soldiers think about legitimate and sought to serve them by enlisting their support. From cxhotting soldiers illegitimate power, did they wish to reorganize society along any new and men of religion with phrases like, 'If we don't attack now we will lines, did caste and gender play any role in their calculations, what were be doomed, know that this is the moment to show valour and bravery; the limits of this radicalization? An overwhelming concentration on to widening the ambit of the war to everybody in the city, the attempt victory and defeat has prevented us from unravelling the threads-of was to tum this explicitly and consciously into a' people's war'.94 Spies protest, resistance and racism-that constituted the ghadar in Delhi, reported that the guards seemed to be more alert than ever before and and at other places.91 that the guns were mounted on all sides.95 As the endgame drew neat We also need to know more about the motivations and mechanisms there were repeated assurances of rewards for everyone who achieved through which people volunteered to fight against the British. This martyrdom while fighting. In addition to monetary rewards, the families pertains especially to people who travelled from distant regions to . . d • b Wh · emarkable is chat in were also pronused pensions an JO s. at 15 r . participate in the war. It was not enough, at least at Dellii, to simply spite• of this awareness of dereat,t:: th e admi ms· trarive order remainedfr tum up and start fighting. Volunteers found it necessary to formally d ments daring even om more or less intact. There are Ietters an d ocu 432 B,:,i,g,d In 1h, Nam,o ' . 7i if Sarita, iwan Lal s narrative, wo Native N . 433 he day the British launched their final assault on D lh. J September, t . d . . . h e I 4, ~eM utmym. . D elh 1'. htm1, p arrative.s • 0n . 14 . th the officials remame m position, t at corn ' C m . ' 8' . l!'J\,w,ka · hich indicate at . . f!i . . rnands Collecnon 151. No. 87, Mutiny p d,a. w . gt' men ts were soil bemg o c1ally received in w . . ent co various re . . rtting, 5, apcrs, National s l till making complaints to the police, almost a (NAI). Archives of lndi chat peop e were s . . s usua] 4 May 1857, Dehli Urdu Akhbar, NAJ • efore that while the real1zanon of the end bein · 2 d . Jc emerges, th er ' g near 7 July 1857, Sa iq ul Akhbar, Vol. N e was no exact knowledge, as the Dehli Urdu Akhb 7, 2 . d khb 4, o.4,NAJ was d ear, th er . . . . •r The Deh/1 Ur u A ar reported on 10 A · to lament, of Brmsh plans, nor any ant1apation of h s. N ' h . ugustonth . never cease d ow of the large 1mac connngent: 'On ch e 4th the . •. unpcndin g•rnva] . ventuall" the city would be routed. comp 1ere 1Y, e ,, . of Badarpur regarding the arrival of the N~non of the thanac1,r . all I must insert a word of cauoon. As I have explained • h as received and a response issued chat H . carnp at Bar,b p Fm y, . . 1n t e W IISa!n BaJduh u1 a preface to this book, is the selecnons from the Mutmy Papers included o receive them and provisions and supPli h Khan should g t es s ouid be o here are as much a record of rebel gover~mentaliry_a~ of rnedieva] and were issued to the General Bahadur, etc. ch ch atranged. Notes ' (S ' at 434 B<$irg,d /" th, Nam, •'Sa L - 1 , .., 435 . ch h smoked air of powder, were cast away like crows d August 1857, Collection 103, No. 220 M . ~me~ . . . Q 31 • 1 , Ut!nyP . ch 1,.., It was such a temble and heart-rending site, a sample f . 6 July-3 September 1857, Collection , Munn apen, NAI. ravens m e s~r· o 32 2 45 that on one side the residents of the mohalla fiea . In the second week of the rebellion he YPapen, NAL dooms da y per haps , , ring 33 • • Wrote to sa ..L __ lest their houses too be blown up and on the other side were the poor cobblers were being sent in, but char the diggers .J. "Ql twcnry-dircc 0 who had died and the lamentations and grief of their farnil thar area had all lefi: town and these cobbl , UJed to reside in wor kers y _, : ac crs too have ctnnnt<{ c._ members' (10 August 1857, Dehli Urdu Akhbar, Vol. 4, No. 6, Mutiny houses after gr~at ':""'culty and if they are not paid dicir-b "om their Papers, NAI. also leave the aty m a day or two' (23 May 1857, Coll wages, they will Mutiny Papers, NAI). On 29 August the d ko CCC!on 61, No. l, 15_ For derails, see Jiwan Lal's narrative, p. 68. • epury rw;iJ . !6. Collection 102, No. 47, Mutiny Papers, NA!. For more on jihad.is, see that coolies had been sent to the Tcliwara trench '-- Wrote m to say . . es uom the~ Dalrymple, Last Mughal. they have not bee~ fa.id thei~ daily wages for two days. He and 17. Richard Cobb provides interesting parallels. The mentalities and their wages be paid because ifwages are nor no;d ,, _ thar r- to COoucs how will th functioning of the police during the French upheavals reflected a long do the work of the government ... as it is scores of Ii ha cy · ' (29 A eoo cs ve run away medieval ethos, as did the police functioning in Delhi during 1857. from th e aty ugust 1857, Collection 129 No. 80 M . Sec Richard Cobb, The Police and the People: French Popular Protests, NAI). ' ' utmy P.p.n, 1789-1820 (London: Oxford University Press, 1970). 4. The kotwal said while supplying fifty sacks and three ds f 3 maun o rope. 18. For a very brief discussion on the importance of the kotwal in the ancien 'bought from the market and sent to his lordship Web th . . . . · ope cir pnce regime, see Narayani Gupta, Delhi Between Two Empires, 1803-1931: would be repaid as qwckly as possible by the govemmcnr' (28 July 1857 Society, Government and Urban Growth (New Delhi: Oxford University Collection lllc, No. 34, Mutiny Papers,NAI). ' Press, 1981), p. 3. 35, See the case of rider Imam Bakhsh. In response, the kotwai sent in a 19. I am thankful to Rashmi Pant for drawing my attention to the abiding requisition to the different thanas to supply him with various kinds of importance of older loyalties for explaining the relative ease with which grains and the order was complied with. See 27 July 1857, Collection the police force switched its loyalty. 103, No. 215. 20. See the Dehli Urdu Akhbar dated 31 May 1857, NA!. 36. The subedar of the thirtieth regiment wrote to the kotwal demanding 21. 7 August 1857, Collection Ille, No.127, Mutiny Papers, NAI. six thatchers for making fences at the hospital, and, as the bureaucratic 22. 10 August 1857, Collection lllc, No. 159, Mutiny Papers, NA!. See norm demanded, the kotwal responded by inscribing on the nurgiru also Collection lllc, No.160, Mutiny Papers, NA!. that a.note had been sent to the thanadar ofTurlcman g.ce demanding 23. 16 June 1857, Collection 128, No. 64, Mutiny Papers, NA!. thatchers (29 July 1857, Collection lllc, No. 49). 24. 10 June 1857, Collection 128, No. 34, Mutiny Papers, NA!. 37. ll June 1857, Collection 125, No.12, Mutiny Papers, NAI. 25. Undated, Collection 57, No. 543, Mutiny Papers, NAI. 38. 23 August 1857, Collection 124, No. 306, Mutiny Papers, NAI. 26. Undated, Collection 120, No.129, Mutiny Papers, NA!. 39. Undated, Collection 61, No. 547, Mutiny Papers, NAI. 27. 26 July-3 September 1857, Collection 45, Mutiny Papers, NA!. 40. 16 August 1857, Collection 63, No. 46, Mutiny Papers, NAI. 28. 25 July 1857, Collection 103, No. 213, Mutiny Papers, NAI. 41. 'When and if you intend to raid somebody's house, you should immediatdy 29. 27 May 1857, Collection 123, No. 6, Mutiny Papers, NA!. inform the kotwali. Until permission is granted by the kocwali, no raids 30. In 1841, the colonial Delhi government attempted to transfer the charge should be conducted' ( 19 May-10 August 1857, Collection 53, Muany of the chowkidari tax to the Bakhshis, in lieu of the citizens' panchayats, Papers, NAI). NA! but had to back down in the face of popular protest. See Gupta, Delhi 42. 13 August 1857, Collection 101, No. 26, Mutiny Papers, · M tiny Papers, NAI. Brtween Two Empires, p.11. 43. 31 August 1857, Collection 120, No. 190 • u I" th, Na,,,, •f Sarka, 436 Besieged 437 can a search be conducted. Wichouc the appl· . the King showed some restraint and asked the kotwal to fi Forrunacdy, . bl' b c rst earches will be conducted ac res~--L ,_ ICation of the spy/ ;"i;.._ 44 · ral damation banning gam mg erore arresting P nO S . t'-'-""IC people'. ho , -uuunant issue a gene pro . eople, Collection 60, No. 253, Munny Papers, NAL) llJt! (1July 1857, 7 Collection lllc, No.11, Munny Papers, NAI See24J ulY 185 ' . · On 24 July, the C-in-C wrote co all the .1.. __ , 7 Collection 62, No. 80, Munny Papers, NAI. 55 ' adar Uu.J=rJ and the L,._ • 45 3 August 185 ' ki . sure that all than s sent in their diaries by ""'Wei ro male, : On July, the C-in-C wrote co the kocwal as ~g him to issue a general . 8 a.rn.-an tn~-~ 30 which was repeace d sever al nmes. See 24 July , . --, .... cion 46 . co make sure that no one comrruts cow slaughter a d 1857 pro d amaaon n to l34, Mutiny Papers, NAI. Colkccion 120, No. ho so much as even thinks of doing so. It has been h d ne W 'arrest anyo . ear _ See the response by the ~anadar co the deputy kocwaJ on tbc _ mu,iahideen intend co perform chis act, so go to the Ma I . 56 ch at some , u v1 chat there was no officer m che Dariba chana to . . . complainr saheb and ask him co talk co them ... This year no one should chink of =epuiaons for cwo illiterate barqandazes. Kocwali ruords, 26 July- C:tCtpt doing so otherwise there will be an unnecessary riot and the enemy's 3 1857, Collection 45, Mutiny Papers, NAI. Sci,t,,nbcr hands will be strengthened' (30 July 1857, Collection lllc, No. G4, . 25 May 1857, Collection 61, No. 4, Mutiny Papers, NAI. Mutiny Papers, NAI). 57 . Upon this, che thanadar sent in an indignant reply, refuting tbc 47, 26July-3 September 1857, Collection 45, Mutiny Papers, NAI. 58 that he was not on duty and impugning the complaint's~= . The korwal explained co the King chat there was not enough room in the 48 he had gone to offer Id prayers while the dttk was in the roilt:cand wb.n korwali co hold all the cows owned by the Muslims in the city. In turn, asked co wait, the complainant had chosen co go back home. lheilwiada, he suggested chat thanadars should be directed co gee bonds executed by che Muslims co the effect that they would not sacrifice cows. See 29 July added that Faiz Mohammed Khan hadconcoccedcbercporcof tbcbrcal:- in in order co take over the goods by scealcb as in these situations, th, 1857, Collection lllc, No. 44, Mutiny Papers, NAI. complainant generally never desired a search or rcgiscercd claims~ 49. 29 July 1857, Collection 111c, No. 45, Mutiny Papers, NAI. anyone. 'As far as being absent or present is concermd, cbe sinwioo. is this 50. On 22nd June, some barqanclazes of thana Bhojla Pahari were doing their customary rounds near the Lahori Gate when they noticed two sacks. that this devoted one never absents himself from duty even for a moment Suspicious, chey inquired into it, whereupon the soldiers posted there and the derk of this thana is an outsider and he never goes anywheti (25 May 1857, Collection 61, No. Mutiny proceeded co give a solid thrashing to the hapless barqandazes. See 22 3, Papers, NAI). June 1857, Collection 103, No. 24, Mutiny Papers, NAI. 59. Acting as the secretary of the CoM, General Taleyaar Khan wrote, 51. The chanadar of Guzar Qasimjan wrote co the kocwal saying that when That the plaintiff had first made a claim and then you write they have challenged by che barqandazes of the thana, the soldiers threatened co compromised with each other, it is not dear whether cbe complainant's case was true or false. Therefore you are directed chat you should nor, beat chem up and explicitly cold the thanadar co mind his own business, who would have let it pass but for the face that they were now demanding for any case, make a decision and send ic co our court. Send both patties money to allow documents to pass. See Undated, Collection 110, No. to our court now' (19 .August 1857, Collection 103, No. 303, Mutiny 293, Mutiny Papers, NAI. Papers, NAI). 60. 3 July 1857, Collection Ulb, No.14, Mutiny Papers, NAI. 52. 26 July-3 September 1857, Collec_tion 45, Mutiny Papers, NAI. rd 61. This is one of the few contemporary references I have found to this wo 53. Emphasis added. 26 July-3 September 1857, Collection 45, Mutiny d Papers, NAI which has come to stand for che uprising itsd£ Here it definit y mwis 54. 1 July 1857, Collection 60, No. 253, Mutiny Papers, NAI. Accordingly, disobedience and rebellion. d . . . . f fo water carriers, an or er 62 . The matter involved the requmaonmg O ur Wh th when the soldiers were insistent on searching the house of a rich magnate, c midnight. en e Ajudhia Parshad, the kocwal instructed the chanadar to 'Tell the soldiers for which arrived ac the Turkman Gace ch ana a fused . Kh I ding four others, re thac they should first go to the General Bahadur with the informant and barqandazes were called out, Gh azi an, ea h d . them a . aft h .amadar a given submit an appli ca ti on ch ere. Wh en an orderis• passed from there only ch en to comply. Only in the morning, er t e J ______.,, l In iht Na m, oi5a..1. 1 """ 439 Btsitgtd 438 •on people talked loud and clear O . . rhe Korwali records, 26 July-3 September 1857, Reactt • . . · ne ts constant! O . •rnpudence and their imprudence' (Cobb 71_. p . Y antazed at . n order, did Yg · 1 chetr • ""' olicc and th p wnrre . 45 Muan . y Papers ' NAI. 51), t topic, Collecoon ' h k al wrote to all the thanadars asking them to 22 dJune, t e otw . August 1857, Collection 61, No. 367, Mutiny Pa 63. On n•f any posrs ofb arqandaz orJ·amadar or mohurnr were vacant in 77· Ali the thanadar of Chandni Ch k pcrs, NAI. Syed 1 Nazar • ow , wrote an a I . reporr . rh r 'if any barqandaz was inefficient or negligent ch .r respecave anas o ' e C-in-C on 14 August staring that all docum po ogcoc note et . rh ders of rhe government (22 June 1857, Collection co ch ents wmcobe~ d in carrying out e or erly and that the incorrect sealing was done not by hi e pro P m, but by th 120, No. 16, Mutiny Papers, NAI). . rnohurrir of the thana Durga Prashad. e fBh 0,ila Pahari Mirza Amam Beg, wrote to the C-in-C 64. The rhana dar o , ' . •hli Urdu Akhbar, 31 May 1857, Collection 2 Murin p ·ng rhat 'Since the ame the royal government took over 78, D• . ' Y apcrs, NAI. on 30t hJul Y sayi ' . ' 1he earlier channels of revenue and gram collection had broken down . fbarqandazes has increased and there ts not enough room 79 chenum bero . · Delhi and the British control of Punjab and other surroundin m for charpoys for all to fit in'. So he requested the sanction of tw~ rupees . di . nal . gareas had cut it off from its era tto agranan and other commodities rnarkas a monrh for renting a room for them. See 30 July 1857, Collectton 122, Compare the situation in Awadh in Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Awadh No. 22, Mutiny Papers, NAI. 65. 27 Ma 1857, Collection 123, No. 6, Mutiny Papers, NAI. in Revolt, 1857-58: A Study of Popular Rtsisunce (Delhi, New York: 66. They s:d rhat he was a badmash who spent all his time loitering around Oxford University Press, 1984). However, Bahadur Shah did rruive wirh bad characters and that he had proved so cruel that if he continued, money from former and nominal vassals such as the raja of Ballabg.rh, 'the subjects are sure to be ruined' (24 June 1857, Collection 61, No. 95, the raja of Kishangarh, the nawabs of Jhajjhar and Bahadurgarh, and Mutiny Papers, NAI. occasionally, from the contingents chat poured in from other cities. See 67. 3July 1857, Collection 61, No.117, Mutiny Papers, NAI. Eric Stokes, The Peasant Armed: The Indian Rebellion of 1857, edited by 68. 29 July 1857, Collection 61, No. 256, Mutiny Papers, NAI. C.A. Bayly (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), and also the rm 69. See section 'Pillage, Extortion and Dereliction' on soldiers in this of chis volume. volume. so. Dehli Urdu Akhbar,14 June 1857, Collection 2, Mutiny Papers, NAI. 70. 16 August 1857, Collection 121, Number 105, Mutiny Papers, NAI. 81. Gautam Bhadra, 'Four Rebels ofEighteen-Fifty-Sevcn: in lunajit Guha 71. 25 July 1857, Collection 120, No. 137, Mutiny Papers, NAI. (ed.), Subaltern Studies IV (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985, 72. Emphasis added. 26 July-3 September 1857, Collection 45, Mutiny p.268. Papers,NAI. 82. Ibid., p. 266. One example of this kind of merry-making came on 23 73. 7 September 1857, Collection 60, No. 686, Mutiny Papers, NAI. An June, the centenary of the battle of Plassey when a 'gun constructed in order was then sent to Kalwant Singh, commander of the fourth platoon, the reign ,of Shahjahan was mounted on the walls, a he-goat was tied thirty-eighth regiment, asking him to produce. the woman along with to the mouth, twenty five seers of sweetmeats were placed inside the the soldier Jabar (see 7 September 1857, Collection 75, No. 22, Mutiny barrel, and a necklace of flowers was hung around the muzzle. Then Papers, NAI). The soldier was duly arrested and the woman was produced several Brahmins and astrologers were summoned and directed to in the court. Her version of the events was that Pir Bakhsh assaulted her consult their almanacks as to whether the mutineers would be victorious' and threw her out of the house, after which she had gone away. See 11 (Christopher Hibbert, The Great Mutiny, India 1857 [New Delhi: September 1857, Collection 60, No. 688, Mutiny Papers, NAI. Penguin, 1980), p. 275). A similar sentiment was displayed when the 74. 30 June 1857, Collection 106, No. 31, Mutiny Papers, NAI. common people, regular bystanders at the batteries, would be~ead each 75. Undated, Collection 104, No. 67, Mutiny Papers, NAI. th 76. In a remarkabl si ·1a , C b slain Englishman and carry their impaled heads in a procession to e Y m, r vem, o b writes of the people during the French · d K' d See Hibbert, Great revolution: 'Even at th h 'gh f h city, an earn five rupees from the mg as a rewar · e et t o t e Terror and of the Thermidorian Mutiny, p. 277. r 440 Besieged . h are interesting parallels with the situat' . Once again, r ere . Ion in 83, . France. See Cobb, The Police, p. 23. revoluoonary857 Collection 61, N o. 369 , M utmy. papers, NAI. s 1 84 · 14 Augu.. Guhr has' developed some ms1g· · htful h ypot heses about the u f 85 RanaJlt a . se o · . . oments of resistance. See his Elementary Aspects o'Pe inversion mm . . 1 asant ew Delhi: Oxford Umvers1ty Press, 1983), Chapter GLOSSARY Insurgency (N 2· terms appear in the Urdu documents. See Mukhe . 86. Th ese Eng lish l)ee, Awadh in Revolt, pp. 138-50. see MukherJ·ee, Awadh in Revolt, p. 154. 87. For both , _ Sabyasachi Dasgupta has developed some useful insights about the A mythical bird 88 Anqa soldiers' councils. See his 'The Rebel Army of 1857: At the Vanguard of A gold coin, also a Mughal coin Asharfi the War of Independence or a Tyranny of Arms; Economic and Political Ruffian, goonda, criminal, lower classes Badmash Weekly, Vol. 42 (19), 2007, pp.1729-33. Id ul Zuha, the Muslim festival of rhanlcsgivin 89. See section 'The Court of Mutineers' in this volume. Baqrid A semi-armed Police constable g 90. I mean particularly the Rajputs, Bhumihars and Brahmans of Baiswara Barqandaz Charge sheet and eastern India, in general, where Ramcharitmanas, a long devotional Challan poem composed in the Persian form of masnavi (a 'communique' as Chana Chick pea, staple army food translated by Professor Mujib Rizvi), which closely followed Persian and Chaudhri Headman, of a clan or caste etc. Hindavi sufi creations, was a highly popular and culturally significant Chowkidar Watchman poem. See also Ram Vilas Sharma, Nirala]ivan va Vyaktitva (Delhi: C-in-C Commander in Chie£ Mirza Mughal Rajkamal, dare of publication unknown). These hypotheses, however, CoM Court of Mutineers need more detailed investigation. Dak Post, also a carriage for hire 91. One has to reiterate here, this is with the exception of Ranajit Guha. A broker or a middleman 92. See section 'Give us money, rank and compensation' on volunteers in this Dalal Hall of special audience in the Red Fort volume. Diwan-e Khas 93. 13 August 1857, Collection 70, No. 210, Mutiny Papers, NAI. Faras Iran 94. For a brief discussion of the concept and how it may apply to 1857, see Ghazi Religious warrior Kaushik Basu, 'The Beginning ofPeople 's War' in India; Economic and Havaldar Officer in the British Indian army Political Weekly, Vol. 42 (19), 2007, pp.1720-28. Halwai Confectioner 95. Hibbert, Great Mutiny, p. 279. Hartal Strike Hirkara A runner for post and messages Kalima Muslim declaration of faith Kebab Roasted meat Khwaja Sara A eunuch, the keeper of the interior palace ]amadar Subaltern rank in the army I 441