shake off the yoke of a stranger, and to reestablish the full power of native chiefs, and the full sway of native religions. There is a kind of God's revenge against murder in the unsuccessful issue of all enterprises commenced in massacre, and carried on by cruelty and bloodshed. Whatever the causes of the mutiny and the revolt, it is clear enough that one of the modes by which the leaders, as if by common instinct, determined to effect their end was, the destruction of every white man, woman, or child who fell into their hands?a design which the kindliness of the people, or motives of policy, frustrated on many remarkable occasions. It must be remembered that the punishments of the Hindoo are cruel, and whether he be mild or not, he certainly is not, any more than the Mussulman,4 distinguished for clemency towards his enemies. But philosophize and theorize as we may, Cawnpore will be a name ever heard by English ears with horror long after
the present generation has passed away.
* * *
Februar)' 13th.?* * * The difficulty, in my mind, was to believe that it [Cawnpore] could ever have been defended at all. Make every allowance for the effects of weather, for circumstances, it is still the most wretched defensive position that could be imagined. Honour to those who defended it! Pity for their fate! Above all, pity for the lot of those whom the strong arms and brave hearts failed to save from the unknown dangers of that foul treachery! It was a horrible spot! Inside the shattered rooms, which had been the scene of such devotion and suffering, are heaps of rubbish and filth. The intrenchment is used as a cloaca maxima5 by the natives, camp- followers, coolies, and others who bivouac in the sandy plains around it. The smells are revolting. Bows of gorged vultures sit with outspread wings on the mouldering parapets, or perch in clusters on the two or three leafless trees at the angle of the works by which we enter. I shot one with my revolver; and as the revolting creature disgorged its meal, twisting its bare black snake-like neck to and fro, I made a vow I would never incur the risk of beholding such a disgusting sight again.
a ? *
armies to massacre Roman and Italian residents in Asia in 88 B.C.E. In 1641 in Ulster, a county in northern Ireland, dispossessed native Irish Catholics rose up against English and Scottish Protestant settlers. Sicilians rebelled in 1282 against Charles I, the French-born king of Naples (son of Louis VIII and brother of Louis IX of France). In 1572, on the evening before the feast day of St. Bartholomew (August 24), some Catholic nobles in the French royal court began a massacre of
Huguenots (French Protestants), giving new impetus to a lengthy religious civil war.
2. Particular. 3. Peasant rebellion; the term derives from the 1358 uprising of peasants, known derisively as 'Jacques,' against nobles in northern France. 4. Muslim. 5. Largest sewer (Latin), after the main sewer draining northeast Rome (which even in the classical period was covered).
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1614 / EMPIRE AND NATIONAL IDENTITY
February 14th.?* * 4 All the country about Cawnpore is covered with the finest powdered dust, two or three inches deep, which rises into the air on the smallest provocation. It is composed of sand, pulverized earth, and the brick powder and mortar of the dilapidated houses; whatever, in fact, can turn into dust. As the natives shuffle along, their pointed slippers fling up suffocating clouds of this unpleasant compound, and when these slippers are multiplied by thousands, the air is filled with a floating stratum of it, fifteen or eighteen feet high, and extending over the whole of the station. Even in the old days, when the roads were watered, the station of Cawnpore had a bad notoriety for dust. What an earthquake to shake to pieces, what a volcano to smother with lava and ashes, has this mutiny been! Not alone cities, but confidence and trust have gone, never more to be restored!
Among those heaps of dust and ashes, those arid mounds of brick, those new-made trenches, I try in vain to realize what was once this station of Cawnpore. The solemn etiquette, the visits to the Brigadier and the General en grande tenue, the invitations to dinner, the white kid-gloves, the balls, the liveries, the affectation of the -plus haut des hauts tons, the millinery anxieties of the ladies, the ices, and champagne, and supper, the golden-robed Nana Sahib,6 moving about amid haughty stares and ill-concealed dislike. 'What the deuce does the General ask that nigger here for?' The little and big flirtations, the drives on the road?a dull, ceremonious pleasure?the faded fun of the private theatricals, the exotic absurdities of the masonic revels, the marryings and givings in marriage, the little bills done by the rich bunneahs,7 the small and great pecuniary relations between the station and the bazaar, the sense of security?and then on all this exaggerated relief of an English garrison- town and watering- place, the deep gloom of apprehension?at first 'a shave of old Smith's,'8 then a well-authenticated report, then a certainty of disaffection? rolling like thunder-clouds, and darkening the glassy surface of the gay society till it burst on it in stormy and cruel reality. But I cannot.
'Ah! you should have seen Cawnpore in its palmy days, when there were two cavalry regiments here, a lot of artillery, and three regiments of infantry in the cantonments.9 Chock full of pretty women! The private theatricals every week; balls, and picnics, and dinners every evening. By Jove! it's too horrible to look at it now!' And so, indeed, it was. But one is tempted to ask if there is not some lesson and some warning given to our race in reference to India by the tremendous catastrophe of Cawnpore? I am deeply impressed by the difficulty of ruling India, as it is now governed by force, exercised by a few who are obliged to employ natives as the instruments of coercion. That force is the base of our rule I have no doubt; for I see nothing else but force employed in our relations with the governed. The efforts to improve the condition of the people are made by bodies or individuals who have no connection with the Government. The action of the Government in matters of improvement is only excited by considerations of revenue. Does it?as the great instructor of the people, the exponent of our superior morality and civilization?does it observe treaties, keep faith, pursue a fixed and equitable policy, and follow the precepts of Christianity in its conduct towards states and peoples? Are not our courts of law con
6. A dispossessed Hindu ruler who took at least 8. An unconfirmed report (military slang) of an nominal charge of the rebel forces at Cawnpore incident from Lieutenant Colonel George Acklom and who was seen by many British as the master-Smith at his post at Fatehgarh, sixty miles from mind behind the massacres. 'En grande tenue': in Cawnpore. full military dress (French). 'Plus haut des hauts 9. Permanent military stations in British India. tons': the highest of high fashions (French). 'Palmy': prosperous. 7. The receipts written up by wealthy merchants.
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COOK: THE ENGLISHMAN / 1615
demned by ourselves? Are not our police admitted to be a curse and a blight upon the country? In effect, the grave, unhappy doubt which settles on my mind is, whether India is the better for our rule, so far as regards the social condition of the great mass of the people. We have put down widow-burning,1 we have sought to check infanticide; but I have travelled hundreds of miles through a country peopled with beggars and covered with wigwam villages.
1858-59 1860
1. Suttee, the custom of a Hindu widow willingly immolating herself on her husband's funeral pyre; it was
