CHAPTER VI.

TRUE CAUSES OF THE MUTINY.

What were the true causes of the mutiny in my own opinion; viz. that the native mind had been already alarmed, when the greased cartridge confirmed its suspicion.-That the native army was dangerously organized, ill-disciplined, and discontented; above all, that the NorthWestern Provinces were denuded of European troops.-Public measures which had tended to alarm the native mind.-Extreme rapidity of recent educational changes.-All public servants, village head men, subject to examinations.-Education in gaols.-The people wondered, and suspected our motives.-The Brahmins fostered their suspicions.— Motives attributed to us.-Recent enactments affecting Hindoo usages. Unwise missionary interference of British officers.-Remarks on Indian missions generally.-General observations on Government education in India. Grants in aid of missionary education.—Character of native élèves of Government seminaries.-Their irreligion.-The alarm excited by the introduction of greased cartridges fostered by designing men.Instances given of the general native alarm.-Extreme credulity of the natives. An example instanced.-Reports which were rife at this period in Oudh.-Dangerous organization of the Bengal army.-Highcaste system. Opinion of it given by a pensioned soobahdar of the Bombay army. A second case illustrative of it.-Consanguinity of the Bengal sepoys.-Loss of discipline of the Bengal army; abolition of flogging; withdrawal of authority from commanders.-General discontent in the native army.—Local nature of the service of the sepoy in Bengal changed by the extension of our frontier.-Addition of pay granted and withdrawn.-Six volunteer regiments only liable for foreign service.-New order of Government directed that all future enlistment should be for general service.-The sepoy could before invalid after fifteen years; a new order put a stop to this.-Sepoys' letters subjected to postage.-Neglect of sepoys by European officers.-Withdrawal of officers for staff employ.-Native officers underpaid.-The North-Western Provinces denuded of European troops.-Sepoys correspond, and then conspire, and lastly mutiny.

THE fifth and last reasons enumerated in the fourth chapter are those to which I myself attribute the outbreak of mutiny in India. I conceive that the native mind had been gradually alarmed on the vital subjects of caste and religion, when the spark was

applied by the threatened introduction of the greased cartridge; that this spark fell upon a native army most dangerously organized, subject to no sufficient bonds of discipline, and discontented; and above all, that this occurred at a time when Bengal and the North-Western Provinces were so denuded of European troops as to leave the real power in the hands of the natives.

I believe the native Hindoo mind to have been for some time previously alarmed on the subject of caste and religion. Many public measures had tended to this result; but perhaps none more so than the extreme rapidity with which educational measures had of late years been forced on. Local officers, with the approval of Government, solicited contributions from the people for the establishment of schools. These were set up not only in cities, nor yet only in towns; but villages were grouped together into circles or unions to support a school; and every month brought out some new measure to give impetus to the educational mania.

All public servants were required to qualify themselves by literary acquirements, for which examinations were instituted. Not even an ordinary messenger, on the pay of eight shillings a month, could be entertained unless he could read and write. Village accountants, and the head men of village communities, might be required to pass examinations. In respect to the public gaols a perfect mania prevailed. Reading, writing, arithmetic, were required; and sometimes geography, and the planetary system were taught. And murderers and burglars who distinguished themselves as teachers were conveyed from one gaol to another to educate the rest. The people looked on and wondered, not without suspicion. Suspicion ever marks the barbaric mind. Why were we doing all this? Surely

not without some hidden purpose of our own. The Brahmins fostered the suspicions. They beheld in the enlightenment of the people, the certain downfall of their faith and their power. And already they perceived themselves to be treated with less consideration than before. It was whispered, and extensively believed, that the object of our Government was to destroy the Hindoo religion, and to convert them to

our own.

A striking instance of the working of their suspicions may here be mentioned. The facts were related to me by the late lamented Major Banks. More than a year before Oudh was occupied, while in Calcutta, Major Banks was consulted by the head native officer of the Governor-General's body-guard, who earnestly begged his advice upon a difficulty of importance. The risaldar was a native of Behar, his home being near Arrah. He had a son, who had long been betrothed to the daughter of a Hindoo family of high rank in the neighbourhood. The parties had now attained the age when it is usual with Hindoos to solemnize the marriage; and accordingly the bridegroom's father had made every preparation for the wedding, and had incurred large expense. But at the last hour the bride's family had refused. "Your son,' said they, "has been attending an English school: he has become a Christian: he shall not wed our daughter." Those who know how deeply Orientals feel on such matters will understand how keenly the refusal must have been felt. Such affronts are too usually in India settled by the sword.

It may be asked, what object was attributed to our Government by the natives, in the supposed intention to destroy their religion and their caste? This was a question which at an early stage of the mutiny was

continually proposed to the natives by ourselves. The regulations of Government prohibited the enlistment of Christians to serve as sepoys in our native regiments. How, then, should we be benefited by the conversion of the soldiery? As the rules stood, a converted Hindoo would be disqualified from employ. Usually no reply could be given. But the only one which I have heard offered by the sepoys themselves was, that once they had become "one of ourselves," they would then be available for general service in any quarter beyond the boundary of Hindostan.

We were believed to entertain views of vast ambition; and these would be aided if we could get rid of the prejudice which restrains the Hindoo soldier to the limits of India, and lead the Brahmin and rajpoot soldier to carry the standards of our unsatisfied conquest over the Hindoo Koosh into Persia, and across the ocean to the rich plains of China.

I apprehend that some of the recent enactments of the Indian Legislature, permitting the Hindoo convert to retain his patrimony; legalizing the re-marriage of Hindoo widows; and threatening the Hindoo institution of polygamy, did much to alarm the Brahmins, and the people generally; and to induce a belief that the Government might intend to interfere yet more radically with the customs and rules held sacred by the Hindoo.

Nor do I think that of late years our missionary zeal in India has been tempered by wisdom. As our empire in the East has extended, we have ever notified to the people that the Government would exercise no interference in matters of religion; and, therefore, the servants of the State were required to abstain from active missionary exertion. This was left to the missionary, who is clothed with no official authority.

His efforts were encouraged by the private countenance and subscriptions of pious servants of the State, who often visited the mission school and chapel, and aided the managing committees with their counsel and advice. Still the active labourer was the missionary ; and no one marks more clearly than does the native, the distinction between the duties of his proper vocation, and those of a public servant of the State. Of late years, however, I think that public official influence exercised in aid of missions has been too much felt, and fear that it has assisted in alarming the native mind. Undeniable it is that this alarm was aroused. And in seeking to account for it, it is impossible to shut one's eyes to the fact that the native gentry have been solicited by English civilians to subscribe to the Religious Tract Society; and that British colonels have preached the Gospel to their native soldiers in the public bazaars.

One brief word on the subject of Missions. Encourage the missionary by all means. Send out as many earnest and pious men as possible to proclaim the Gospel to the heathen. The missionary is truly the regenerator of India. Though as yet his labours show little apparent fruit, believe not that they are lost the land is being leavened, and Hindooism is everywhere being undermined. Great will some day, in God's appointed time, be the fall of it! Hindooism is even now not as bigoted as Hindooism used to be. Nor should disappointment be felt at the small number of converts. A Hindoo proselyte to Christianity incurs a penalty little less than that of martyrdom. He becomes outcast, excommunicate, and loses most of that which is usually accounted to make life valuable. It is not from all that such sacrifices can be expected.