91. THE MISSIONS TO AFGHANISTAN AND THE SIKHS

Lord Minto to the Board of Control, February 10, 1808.

If the views of the enemy should extend to the direct invasion of India by an army proportioned to that undertaking, their march must probably be to the Indus, and must lead through the kingdom of Kabul and the territories of Lahore, as well as through the countries of several independent chiefs situated between Persia and the Company's possessions. It has appeared to be extremely desirable to push forward a British agency as far beyond our own frontiers, and as near the countries from which the enemy is to take his departure as possible... (Lord Minto in India, 142.)

Minute by Minto, June 1808.

The object proposed is to conciliate the Princes who govern the states of Kabul and Lahore, to obtain their consent to the passage of our troops through their country, or their admission into their territories, for the purpose of opposing a French army in their projected invasion of Hindostan; and our hope also is to establish such defensive engagements with those Governments as may obtain their co-operation, or at least their friendly aid and assistance, to our military operations and to our cause generally. .

I am persuaded that the Commander-in-Chief will agree with me in considering it at least as questionable whether in the event of Kabul and Lahore proving hostile, or becoming so, it would be advisable to penetrate through their countries or to enter them at all.

It is well known that the habitual and undistinguishing jealousy which is the personal character of Ranjit Singh, and is said to characterise also the regions in which his territories are situated, has been directed specifically against the British Government.

It is the business of the proposed mission of Mr. Metcalfe 3 to remove these suspicions, and to plant in their room the seeds of confidence and union. This must be done in my opinion by a frank, open, and sincere avowal of our ultimate

1 Afghanistan.

2 Capital of the Punjab and of the Sikh Empire under Ranjit Singh. 3 Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, afterwards Lord Metcalfe.

objects; and the best support which can be given to our negotiation must be a scrupulous and delicate conduct in every point of our intercourse with him.

With regard to Kabul the objection is precisely similar. With the King of that country we have never had any intercourse whatever. I hope that a sense of common danger, and a real identity of interests, may in the very able hands to which this mission is committed,1 become a foundation of solid union and of zealous and efficient co-operation. But here the work of confidence is to begin. All is yet to do, and I rely for success-here as at Lahore-only on the candid explanation of our true and real purpose, countenanced and supported by a general sincerity of demeanour and by the absence of all those traces of indirect and collateral design which, while they frequently fail in their own object, are very apt to frustrate and disappoint every other with which they are in any way connected.

(Lord Minto in India, 148.)

92. ENGLISH PRIDE IN THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

From the Fifth Report of the Select Committee of the
House of Commons, 1812.

Your Committee . . . have felt it a part of their duty to offer some account of the nature and history of (the establishments for the internal administration of India) . . . trusting that such an account will be acceptable to the House . . . as evincing the unremitting anxiety that has influenced the efforts of those to whom the government of our Indian possessions has been consigned, to establish a system of administration best calculated to promote the confidence and conciliate the feelings of the native inhabitants, not less by a respect for their own institutions, than by the endeavour gradually to engraft upon them such improvements as might shield, under the safeguard of equal laws, every class of people from the oppressions of power, and communicate to them that sense of protection and assurance of justice, which is the efficient spring of all public prosperity and happiness.

Although... imperfections are found in the system of internal government in the Bengal provinces, yet it can, in the

1 Mountstuart Elphinstone, afterwards Resident at Poona and later Governor of Bombay.

opinion of your committee, admit of no question, whether the dominion exercised by the East India Company has on the whole been beneficial to the natives. If such a question were proposed, your committee must decidedly answer it in the affirmative. The strength of the government of British India, directed as it has been, has had the effect of securing its subjects as well from foreign depredation as from internal commotion. This is an advantage rarely experienced by the subjects of Asiatic states; and combined with a domestic administration more just in its principles, and exercised with far greater integrity and ability than the native one that preceded it, may sufficiently account for the improvements that have taken place; and which, in the Bengal provinces, where peace has been enjoyed for a period of time perhaps hardly paralleled in oriental history, have manifested themselves in the ameliorated condition of the great mass of the population; although certain classes may have been depressed by the indispensable policy of a foreign government. The nature and circumstances of our situation prescribe narrow limits to the prospects of the natives in the political and military branches of the public service strictly speaking, however, they were foreigners who generally enjoyed the great offices in those departments, even under the Mogul government; but to agriculture and commerce every encouragement is afforded under a system of laws, the prominent object of which is to protect the weak from oppression, and to secure to every individual the fruits of his industry.

The country, as may be expected, has, under these circumstances, exhibited in every part of it improvements on a general view, advancing with accelerated progress in latter times.

93. THE PINDARIS

From a Memorandum by Captain Sydenham towards the close of 1809.

The Pindaris generally invade a country in bodies of from four thousand to one thousand each. They advance to the frontier with such rapidity, that the account of their depredations is generally the first intelligence of their approach. As soon as they pass the frontier, they disperse in small parties of from five hundred to two hundred each. They are not encumbered with tents, or baggage of any description. They carry nothing but their arms, and their saddlecloths are their beds;

both men and horses are accustomed to endure extraordinary fatigue. They make long and successive marches. They never halt except to refresh themselves, to collect their plunder, and to indulge their passions of lust and cruelty. They subsist themselves and their horses on the grain and provisions which they plunder on their march. They carry off every thing which is valuable and easy of conveyance; what they cannot carry off they wantonly destroy.... They beat and wound and murder the unfortunate inhabitants. They compel them to clean their horses, to provide forage, to collect provisions, and to carry such parts of their plunder as are too bulky to be put upon their horses. They seldom leave a village without setting fire to the houses and grain.

They avoid fighting; for they come to plunder, not to fight. They have neither encampments nor regular halting places. They move to a certain distance, and halt a few hours to refresh themselves and their horses; they then resume their march.

Their movements are equally rapid and uncertain. Being dispersed into small bodies, and marching in any direction where they expect plunder, it is difficult to procure certain intelligence of their position or their numbers. They retire with nearly the same rapidity as they approach, and they have generally reached their strong-holds, and secured their booty, before a Government can adopt any actual measures to repel

them....

The incursions of these common enemies to peace and tranquillity are as regular as the periodical returns of the monsoon. The blessings which a bounteous Providence showers at stated periods upon the thirsty plains of the Deccan, are as regularly defeated by a host of plunderers, who seem to wait with malicious pleasure till the crops are ripe upon the ground, in order that the unfortunate husbandman may be robbed of the fruits of his labour, at the moment when he ought to reap them. The extirpation of such a race of men would be not only a measure of policy, but a service to humanity itself. . . .

It would appear that the number of the Pindaris has been gradually increasing for the last four years, and it probably amounts at present to twenty-five thousand. Their numbers, strength, and resources, will probably continue to increase rapidly. They are already possessed of considerable tracts of land, and their possessions will of course be more extensive. Some parties of them appear to be in the service, or at the

S

requisition, of Holkar and Sindhia; other parties do not appear to be attached to any chieftain. . . . The Raja of Berar at one time proposed to take a body of them into his service, and to allot for their subsistence lands near the river Nerbudda. As their numbers and resources increase, their importance will become greater.

(E.I.C., Papers on Pindari and Mahratta Wars, 1824, p. 1.)

94. THE PINDARIS AND THE MAHRATTAS

From the Private Journal of the Marquess of Hastings.

(Lord Hastings kept a diary for the information of his daughters during the most important part of his governorship. It was subsequently published in two volumes by his daughter the Marchioness of Bute, and forms a document almost unique among the records of British India. Only the entries bearing on the Pindari and Mahratta wars are here printed.)

Feb. 1st, 1814.-The whole of the district between the Hugli and Ragoji Bhonsla's 1 territories is totally devoid of troops and unprotected. None can be spared to it from the pressing demands of other quarters. Yet it is from that frontier of the Raja of Berar that an incursion of Pindaris, who would find no opposition in traversing part of his dominions, is most likely to be made into our richest provinces. The aggregate of the force which could be produced by the several Pindari leaders is estimated at 30,000, principally cavalry. These are professedly freebooters. Their occasional plunder of districts belonging to the Raja of Berar, the Nizam, and Daulat Rao Sindhia, which always take place when their exactions from the petty independent states do not answer their wants, are winked at. Those sovereigns have no sensibility for the sufferings of their subjects. They only calculate the diminution which their revenue may undergo, setting against that loss the convenience of being able on the sudden to take into their pay such a swarm of light troops in case of any breach with this government.

Holkar's dominions being exhausted, his army must ravage some other country, otherwise it will dissolve; and he is now negotiating with the Pindaris for a joint attack on Nagpur. This object, on a former occasion, was held so eventually

1 The easternmost of the Mahratta princes. His capital was Nagpur, in the (modern) Central Provinces, but he was commonly called the Raja

of Berar.