1 UNIVERSITY OF LONDON GOLDSMITHS COLLEGE In Service to India: The ethics of Rule and conduct of British Administrators and Army Officers in late nineteenth and early twentieth century India By Jatinder S. Bam Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology April 2003 2 UNIVERSITY OF LONDON ABSTRACT DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY Doctor of Philosophy IN SERVICE TO INDIA: THE ETHICS OF RULE AND CONDUCT OF BRITISH ADMINISTRATORS AND ARMY OFFICERS IN LATE NINETEENTH AND EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY INDIA By latinder S. Bam In this study I explore the military, administrative and governmental practices of British men as rulers in India during the Victorian and early Edwardian period. The historical events that are the focus of this study are the massacres and disturbances in Punjab, Amritsar 1919. I concentrate on three ruling characters involved in these events; an administrator, a military officer, and an Indian Secretary of State. The central question I ask is: how are these white men who claim to be fitted to rule over others made? I explore the changing relationships between these men and the history of colonialism in India. More specifically, I examine the intersections between 3 movements for independence and shifts in styles of colonial domination amongst these men in India at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In analyzing the events of 1919 I bring together discourses usually separated in discussions of colonial power. First, by following Foucault's leads on the problem of government and his reformulation of it as 'governmentality', I pursue the question of colonial sUbjectivity and its constitution. I remove the colonial authorities in these instances from discourses of the singular and sinister. I find on the contrary that what is at stake are specific professions and traditions of imperial duty that have both internal and external manifestations. Internal in the sense that the men I investigate are concerned to conduct themselves in a manner that befits their calling as rulers, and their conduct is in their view beyond reproach in this regard. External in the sense that their deportment is directed to carrying out their imperial duties in the service of others. I also implicate Indian rule in the extra state techniques of government that preoccupy Foucault's histories of governmentality. Second I combine this approach with an attention to the lives and biographies of certain exemplary individuals. Here I use an approach close to Stefan Collini's characterological method, in which O'Dwyer, Dyer and Montagu exemplify a certain character formation crucial to the exercise of colonial rule. Each of the men I investigate is concerned in their own ways, to support the longevity of empire. In this sense, both through their larger work, in particular their writing and public conversations, and their conduct, they give voice to their specific traditions of empire. 4 I therefore propose a novel reading of Amritsar that sees those events as a window for exploring shifts in styles of colonial rule and domination in India during those times. Acknowledgements My supervisor Nikolas Rose provided me with the inspiration for this thesis. As stubborn and as argumentative as I can be, it is to his enormous credit that he persisted in encouraging me so with a patience and foresight rare indeed. I have benefited tremendously from his intellectual advice, constructive criticism and good humour. My thanks also go to the various forums in which I have been invited to contribute my thoughts. In particular the offices of the National Archives for making me understand how 'other' histories are British histories, so I should help in setting them out as resources for general use. Their invitations are much appreciated. Roiyah Saltus­ Blackwood has encouraged me and taken time out to provide support and much needed impetus at crucial moments. My involvement and exchanges with members of BASA has been of tremendous help. Peter Freshwater in Edinburgh has provided me with apt confirmations and references at apt moments. I am grateful to the help given me by the staff and administrators at the Oriental and India Office reading room at the British Library. I appreciate the help and patience of the staff at the National Army Museum in Chelsea. Andrew Orgill, Senior Librarian in the Central Library at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst provided me with 5 details of General Dyer's army career along with details of where I could get access to the records of his time at the Staff College Camberley. I am grateful to S V Connelly for providing me with the Staff College army lists of 1891. Amongst all the staff in all the reading rooms of all the various libraries I have used I owe a special debt of gratitude to my local library at Goldsmiths College. Ann Aldridge in interlibrary loans sought out and obtained for me some very obscure references. Indeed long after I thought my use of libraries at an end, my local library in Cranford was a wonder. I would like to thank the staff at Cranford for putting up with what at times must have seemed insane queries. My thanks go to Diane Wright for her magnammous concerns. In India I am grateful to Gursharan Singh and Balkar Singh for welcoming me to the Punjabi University in Patiala and arranging for my stay on campus to be as productive as possible (Desh Pardesh)! I also appreciate the assistance and patience of staff at the National Archives of India in Delhi and the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. The staffs at the Khalsa College in Amritsar were instrumental in reassuring me by digging out a copy of O'Dwyer's war speeches. On such a long journey I have made many friends and exasperated a few as well. I owe more than is possible to say to Phillippa Superville who is both my friend and 6 teacher. She has read my work many times, gently prodding me to see the wood for the trees. My friends across the Atlantic, Amit Rai and Falu Bakrania, challenged and inspired me in ways only they can. After such a long time away, I now realise the best is yet to come from my journeys with Amara. Thanks to you all. The unfailing love of my parents, Basant Kaur and Kirpal Singh is greatly appreciated. They have helped and supported me in ways beyond measure. They are my harbour and home, and without them this thesis would simply not exist. This thesis is dedicated to them and with love to Gujjar Singh and Rhun Singh's memories. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 2 Ackowledgements 4 Chapter 1 Introduction 1. Foreword 14 2. Massacre and Shame 15 (a) Massacre 15 (g) Reactions at the Time - Shame 17 (i) Honour and Prestige 17 (ii) Dishonour and Humiliation 19 (iii) Militant Reclamation 24 ,.., .J. Making Sense of the Massacre 29 4. A Window of Opportunity 32 (a) Conceptual Resources 32 (b) Conclusions 45 5. Thesis Structure 47 6. Footnotes 49 8 Chapter 2 The search for a Narrative 1. Introduction 56 2. In Pursuit of Closure - The Secondary Literature (a) Epic Restoration - Pearay Mohan (Mohan 1920) 63 (a) Another Comprehensive attempt at Redemption­ V N Datta (Datta1969) 75 (c) The Case of Guy Homiman (Homiman1920) 80 (d) Ram's Conspiracies - A Premeditated Plan? (Ram 1969) 87 (e) A tum to biography - General Dyer: a Case of Mis-representation (Swinson 1964) 92 (f) Dyer's Pathology- Brigadier-General Dyer's State of Mind (Furneaux 1963) 97 (g) Collective Punishment - Helen Fein's Imperial Crime and Punishment (Fein 977) 102 (h) Making Sense of the Massacre Beyond the Events as an Event­ A Productive Reading - Indians as Children; Imperialists as Fathers (Sayer 1991) 106 3. Conclusion 115 4. Footnotes 117 9 Chapter 3 The Administrative Complex 1. Introduction 125 2. An Administrator par-excellence (a) Descriptions in Administration 126 (b) The Lieutenant Governor's Times - A political context and contests 127 (i) Are we staying or will we be forced to go? - Official contemplation 128 (ii) Are we staying or will we be forced to go? - Unofficial contemplation 130 (iii) Their ruling investments in this land 132 (iv) Defining/Groping for an administrative tradition - Curzon 139 (v) A changing inheritance in administrative tradition- Sir Michael O'Dwyer 141 (vi) Anglo-Irish antecedents 143 (vii) Education of an administrative elite 148 (viii) O'Dwyer's rule in practice 152 (ix) O'Dwyer's character and order in the Punjab - Traditions 155 (x) Duty's seminal regard 168 (xi) Vigorous Traditions 182 3. Conclusion 191 4. Footnotes 193 10 Chapter 4 - The Military Complex 1. Introduction 205 2. Distrust of Military Manners 206 (a) Breeds of antipathy 207 (i) An early instance - Crown or parliament 210 (ii) A later Instance about civil vs. military control- Salisbury vs. Sir Henry Wilson 211 (iii) Sir Henry Wilson vs. the government 213 3. Militarism in India before 1857/8 214 (a) Enterprise - A joint stock co. takes its fill. 216 (b) Sir Josiah Child - early calls for sovereign power 219 ( c) Plassey - perhaps the defining, moment 221 (i) The build-up 221 (ii) A quiet trade no longer 224 4. A Growing Militocracy - From Violence to Order (a) A Welleslian school? 237 (b) A Welleslian future 240 5. Formulising Military Instruction and Training 242 (a) Early battles for a professional heart 244 (b) A new order 246 6. Military Traditions, New Models and Brigadier-General R E H Dyer 11 (a) Antecedents 247 (b) An army cadet 248 (c) 'At staff college batch' 250 (d) A Regime of practice 251 7.