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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/indianmusalmansOOhunt 
 
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 THE ANNALS OF RURAL BENGAL. 
 
 VOL. I.— THE ETHNICAL FRONTIER. 
 
 FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 ‘ One of the most important as well as most interesting works which the records of 
 Indian literature can show. . . . Yellow-stained volumes from each District Treasury in 
 Bengal, family archives from the stores of Rajas, local information collected by Pandits 
 specially employed for the purpose, folk-lore supplied by the laborious inquisition of 
 native gentlemen, manuscripts in London, Calcutta, and Bengal, have all been laid under 
 contribution ; and, as the initial result, we have the first volume of what promises to be a 
 delightful and valuable history.’ — Westminster Review. 
 
 ‘ If Mr. Hunter does not ultimately compel recognition from the world as a historian of 
 the very first class — of the class to which not a score of Englishmen have ever belonged 
 — we entirely mistake our trade. . . . He has executed, with admirable industry and rare 
 power of expression, a task which, so far as we know, has never yet been attempted : he 
 lias given life and reality and interest to the internal history of an Indian Province under 
 British rule — to a history that is without battles, or sieges, or martial deeds of any sort.’ 
 — Spectator. 
 
 ‘ ft is hard to over-estimate the importance of a work whose author succeeds in fascinat- 
 ing us with a subject so generally regarded as unattractive, and who, on questions of grave 
 importance to the future destiny of India, gives the results of wide research and exceptional 
 opportunities of personal study, in a bright, lucid, forcible narrative, rising on occasion to 
 eloquence.’ — Times. 
 
 ‘ Mr. Hunter, in a word, has applied the philosophic method of writing history to a new 
 field. . . . The grace, and ease, and steady flow of the writing almost make us forget, 
 when reading, the surpassing severity and value of the author’s labours.’ — Fortnightly 
 Review. 
 
 ‘ M r. Hunter has written a book which gives promise of a historian scarcely inferior in 
 scholarship, intellectual power, and literary skill to Mr. Froude or Mr. Freeman.’ — British 
 Quarterly Review. 
 
 ‘ A work of the greatest talent, and one which will make an epoch in Indian literature. 
 The facts are set forth with the scrupulous exactness of an honest and impartial judge, 
 the scientific details are clothed in a dress at once clear and picturesque; and it is not too 
 much to compare Mr. Hunter, as a writer, to Lord Macaulay.’ — Revue Bibliographique 
 Universelle. 
 
 A DICTIONARY OF THE NON-ARYAN LANGUAGES OF 
 INDIA AND HIGH ASIA. 
 
 BEING A GLOSSARY OF 139 LANGUAGES BASED UPON THE 
 HODGSON PAPERS, OFFICIAL RECORDS, AND MSS. 
 
 WITH A DISSERTATION. 
 
 (The Author withdraws some of the Linguistic Inductions.) 
 
 ‘ Wo trust that this book will be the starting-point in a new era for our Indian Empire, 
 and that the course recommended in it will immediately engage the attention of our 
 Indian statesmen.’. — Athenaeum. 
 
 ‘A prodigious work — the conception of which was courageous, the execution laborious 
 in the extreme .’ — Saturday Review. 
 
 ‘ The primitive Non-Aryan population of India has seldom been the subject of European 
 research. The ignorance of their habits and views inevitably brings forth mistakes in 
 dealing with them, and the Editor traces their chronic hostility to the British power in a 
 large measure to this source. He discloses the means for putting an end to this unhappy 
 
 •state of things, and for utilising the tribes as soldiers and reclaimers of the soil 
 
 Besides this very practical aim, Mr. Hunter’s Dictionary will bring the important ethno- 
 logical questions, which he has propounded in his Dissertation, nearer to a definite 
 solution .’ — Literarisches Centralblatt. 
 
 A 
 
WORKS BY THE SAME A U T H 0 R — Continued. 
 
 A DISSERTATION, 
 
 POLITICAL AND LINGUISTIC , 
 
 ON THE 
 
 NON-ARYAN RACES OF INDIA: 
 
 TAKEN FROM ‘THE NON- ARYAN DICTIONARY.’ 
 
 (The Author withdraws some of the Inductions in the Linguistic Part, hut not one 
 word in the Political.) 
 
 ‘ Mr. Hunter has prefixed to the body of his work a Dissertation which it is within our 
 competence to appreciate, and which we unhesitatingly pronounce to contain one of the 
 most important generalizations from a series of apparently isolated facts ever contributed 
 to Indian history. ... It is between these [Non-Aryan] masses and the British Govern- 
 ment that Mr. Hunter hopes by his book to establish a lasting link ; and whatever the 
 result of his linguistic labours, in this one labour of mercy he has; we believe, succeeded. 
 Non-Aryans will not again be shot down on the faith of statements from Hindu settlers, 
 who first seize their lands, and then bind them down, under the Indian law of debt, into 
 a serfdom little removed from slavery.’ — Spectator. 
 
 1 The political value of Mr. Hunter’s new book is this, that he has put before the public, 
 official and non-official, such a view of the character and capacities of the Non- Aryan 
 tribes, and of our gross mismanagement of them in the past, that no one, whether the 
 Government or the Christian Church, will dare to withhold from them the civilisation 
 which will convert at least twelve millions of frank, truthful, industrious races, into the 
 most loyal of our subjects .’ — Friend of India. 
 
 1 It is a singular good fortune for the aboriginal tribes of India to have drifted into the 
 favour of so brilliant a writer and so accomplished a scholar. Their connection with Mr. 
 Hunter was one of those accidents in history which are the mother of great events.’ — 
 Hindu Patriot. 
 
 THE UNCERTAINTIES OF INDIAN FINANCE. 
 
 PAMPHLET.— C ALCUTT A 18G9. 
 
 SEVEN YEARS OF INDIAN LEGISLATION. 
 
 PAMPHLET.— CALCUTTA 1870. 
 
 In the Press. 
 
 ORISSA; 
 
 OR, THE VICISSITUDES OF AN INDIAN PROVINCE UNDER 
 NATIVE AND ENGLISH RULE. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 BEING VOLS. II. AND III. OF THE ANNALS OF RURAL BENGAL. 
 
 CONTEXTS. 
 
 Chap. I. Introduction. 
 
 II. The Chilkd Lake. 
 
 III. Jaganndth. 
 
 IV. The Pilgrims of Jaganndth. 
 
 V. Orissa under its Native Princes. 
 
 Chap. VI. Orissa under Military Con- 
 querors. 
 
 VII. The English as Merchants and 
 Governors in Orissa. 
 
 VIII. Growth of Eights in the Soil. 
 
 IX. The Calamities of Orissa. 
 
 I. Statistical Account of the District of 
 Puri. 
 
 II. Statistical Account of the District of 
 Balasor. 
 
 III. Statistical Account of the Tributary 
 
 States. 
 
 IV. Statistical Account of the District of 
 
 Cattack. 
 
 V. Geology of Orissa. 
 
 VI. The Flora of Orissa. 
 
 VII. Chronicle of the Kings of Orissa, 
 from 3101 b.c. to 1871 a.d. 
 
 VIII. Muhammadan Annals of Orissa, as 
 told by the Persian historians, 
 from 1510 to 1751 A.n. 
 
 IX. List of MSS. in the Uriya tongue, 
 showing what remnants survive 
 of ancient Orissa literature. 
 
 Appendices. 
 

 The Indian Musalmans. 
 
 BY 
 
 W. W. HUNTE R, LL.D. 
 
 DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF STATISTICS TO THE GOVERNMENT OK INDIA, 
 
 ONE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BENGAL, HONORARY FELLOW OF THE ETHNOL. SOC. 
 LONDON, AND OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF NETHERLANDS INDIA AT THE HAGUE, ETC. 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 TRUBNER AND 
 
 1872. 
 
 COMPANY 
 
D E D I C A T 1 0 N. 
 
 My dear Hodgson, 
 
 Simla, 23</ June 1871. 
 
 T dedicate this little book to you in acknowledg- 
 ment of the benefit which I have derived from your labours. You, 
 of all the scholars whom our Service has produced, have most fully 
 recognised the duty of studying the people. The greatest wrong 
 that the English can do to their Asiatic subjects is not to under- 
 stand them. The chronic peril which environs the British Power 
 in India is the gap between the Eulers and the Puled. In these 
 pages I have tried to bring out in clear relief the past history and 
 present requirements of a persistently belligerent class — of a class 
 whom successive Governments have declared to be a source of per- 
 manent danger to the Indian Empire. 
 
 I am, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 W. W. HUNTER. 
 
 Brian IIougiiton Hodgson, Esq., 
 Alderney Grange, Gloucestershire. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 A great public calamity lias given most mournful emphasis to 
 these pages. Five days before the first copies reached Calcutta, a 
 Musalman assassin struck down the Chief- Justice of Bengal under 
 the portico of his own Court. I put forth this Second Edition in 
 the hope that it may produce a inaction equally apart from the 
 popular alarm which lias followed that crime, and from the popular 
 apathy which had for years preceded it. To know the real truth 
 about our position in India, seems to me to be the sole safeguard 
 against chronic torpor on the one hand, and sudden panics on the 
 other. 
 
 A critic, whose article proves that he knows India well, and 
 whose eloquent appreciation has given me much encouragement, 
 speaks of the work as a ‘ demi-official ’ one. I cannot let the 
 revised sheets go home without guarding against the misconception 
 to which such a statement might give rise. Government granted 
 me free access to its Archives on a subject in which it was known 
 I had long taken a deep interest, and with regard to which it 
 seemed well that the. whole facts should be placed before the 
 public. But it made no attempt to influence my views, nor is it in 
 any way responsible for my conclusions. All that this book does 
 is to collect the documents hitherto isolated in the various Depart- 
 ments of the Government of India, and out of these scattered links 
 to put together a trustworthy historical narrative. 
 
 Simla, 3 d October 1871. 
 
CON T ENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE STANDING REBEL CAMP ON OUR FRONTIER, .... 9 
 
 CHAPTER 1 1. 
 
 THE CHRONIC CONSPIRACY WITHIN OUR TERRITORY, . . .44 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE DECISIONS OF THE MUHAMMADAN LAW DOCTORS, . . . 108 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE WRONGS OF THE MUHAMMADANS UNDER BRITISH RULE, . . 146 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. DECISION OF THE MECCA LAW DOCTORS, 
 
 II. DECISION OF THE LAW DOCTORS OF NORTHERN INDIA, 
 
 III. DECISION OF THE CALCUTTA MUHAMMADAN SOCIETY, . 
 
 217 
 
 218 
 219 
 

THE INDIAN MUSALMANS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE STANDING REBEL CAMP ON OUR FRONTIER. 
 
 rpHE Bengal Muhammadans are again in a strange 
 state. For years a Rebel Colony has threatened 
 our Frontier ; from time to time sending forth fanatic 
 swarms, who have attacked our camps, burned our vil- 
 lages, murdered our subjects, and involved our troops in 
 three costly Wars. Month by month, this hostile Settle- 
 ment across the border has been systematically recruited 
 from the heart of Bengal. Successive State Trials prove 
 that a network of conspiracy has spread itself over our 
 Provinces, and that the bleak mountains which rise 
 beyond the Pan jab are united by a chain of treason- 
 depots with the tropical swamps through which the 
 Ganges merges into the sea. They disclose an organiza- 
 tion which systematically levies money and men in the 
 Delta, and forwards them by regular stages along our 
 high-roads to the Rebel Camp two thousand miles off. 
 Men of keen intelligence and ample fortune have embarked 
 in the plot, and a skilful system of remittances has re- 
 duced one of the most perilous enterprises of treason to 
 a safe operation of banking. 
 
IO 
 
 THE LATE MUSALMAN AGITATION 
 
 While the more fanatical of the Musalmans have 
 thus engaged in overt sedition, the whole Muhammadan 
 community has been openly deliberating on their obliga- 
 tion to rebel. During the past nine months, the leading 
 newspapers in Bengal have tilled their columns with dis- 
 cussions as to the duty of the Muhammadans to wage 
 war against the Queen. The collective wisdom of the 
 Musalman Law Doctors of Northern India was first 
 promulgated in a formal Decision (Fatwa). Next the 
 Bengal Muhammadans put forth a pamphlet on the ques- 
 tion ; and even the Shiah sect, a comparatively small 
 body in India, have not been able to restrain themselves 
 from print. For some months the Anglo-Indian Press 
 was inclined to smile at the pains which the loyal sort 
 of Musalmans were taking to ascertain whether they 
 could abstain from rebellion without perdition to their 
 souls. But the universal promulgation of formal Legal 
 Decisions by the Muhammadan Law Doctors, soon con- 
 vinced our countrymen that the subject might have a 
 serious as well as a ludicrous aspect. The cumulative 
 papers now published — papers drawn up and issued by 
 the Muhammadans themselves — leave not a shadow of 
 doubt as to the danger through which the Indian Empire 
 is passing. They will convince every reasonable mind, 
 that while the more reckless among the Musalmans have 
 for years been engaged in overt treason, the whole com- 
 munity has been agitated by the greatest State Question 
 that ever occupied the thoughts of a people. The duty 
 of rebellion has been formally and publicly reduced to a 
 nice point of Muhammadan Law. Somehow or other, 
 every Musalman seems to have found himself called 
 on to declare his faith : to state, in the face of his co- 
 religionists, whether he will or will not contribute to the 
 
THE THREEFOLD ASPECT OF THE CASE. 1 1 
 
 Traitors’ Camp on our Frontier ; and to elect, once and 
 for all, whether he shall play the part of a devoted fol- 
 lower of Islam, or of a peaceable subject of the Queen. 
 In order to enable the Muhammadans to decide these 
 points, they have consulted not only the leading Doctors 
 of their Law in India, but they have gone as far as Mecca 
 itself. The obligation of the Indian Musalmans to rebel 
 or not rebel, hung for some months on the deliberations 
 of three priests in the Holy City of Arabia. 
 
 I propose to exhibit this spirit of unrest among our 
 Musalman subjects in the threefold form which it has 
 assumed. I shall briefly narrate the events which led to 
 the settlement of a Rebel Colony on our Frontier, and 
 lay before the reader a few of the chronic disasters in 
 which it has involved the British Power. In my second 
 chapter I shall explain the treasonable organization by 
 which the Rebel Camp has drawn unfailing supplies of 
 money and men from the interior Districts of the Empire. 
 I shall then unfold the legal discussions to which this 
 anomalous state of things has given rise, — discussions 
 which disclose the Muhammadan masses eagerly drinking- 
 in the poisoned teachings of the Apostles of Insurrection, 
 while a small minority anxiously seeks to get rid of the 
 duty to rebel by ingenious interpretations of the Sacred 
 Law. But if I were to end here, I should have only told 
 half the truth. The Musalm&ns of India are, and have 
 been for many years, a source of chronic danger to the 
 British Power in India. For some reason or other they 
 hold aloof from our system, and the changes in which 
 the more flexible Hindus have cheerfully accpiiesced, are 
 regarded by them as deep personal wrongs. I propose, 
 therefore, in my fourth chapter, to inquire into the 
 grievances of the Muhammadans under English Rule ; to 
 
i2 SAYYID AHMAD , BANDIT AND PREACHER , 1820. 
 
 point out their real wrongs, and the means of remedying 
 them. 
 
 The Rebel Camp on the Punjab Frontier owes its 
 origin to Sayyid Ahmad, 1 one of those bold spirits whom 
 our extermination of the Pindari Power scattered over 
 India half a century ago. He began life as a horse 
 soldier in the service of a celebrated freebooter, 2 and for 
 many a year harried the rich opium-growing villages of 
 Malwa. The stern order which the rising power of the 
 Sikhs under Ranjit Singh imposed on their Musalman 
 neighbours, made the trade of a Muhammadan bandit a 
 perilous and an unprofitable one. At the same time, their 
 strict Hinduism fanned the zeal of the Muhammadans of 
 Northern India into a flame. Sayyid Ahmad wisely 
 suited himself to the times, gave up robbery, and about 
 1816 went to study the Sacred Law under a Doctor of 
 high repute at Delhi. 3 After a three years’ noviciate he 
 started forth as a preacher, and by boldly attacking the 
 abuses which have crept into the Muhammadan faith in 
 India, obtained a zealous and turbulent following. The 
 first scene of his labours lay among the descendants of 
 the Rohillas, 4 for wdiose extermination we had venally lent 
 our troops fifty years before, and whose sad history forms 
 one of the ineffaceable blots on Warren Hastings’ career. 
 Their posterity have, during the past half century, taken 
 an undying revenge, and still recruit the Rebel Colony on 
 our Frontier with its bravest swordsmen. In the case of 
 the Rohillas, as in many other instances where we have 
 done wrong in India, we have reaped what we sowed. 
 
 1 A native of tlie British District of Rdi Bareli. Born in the sacred month 
 Muharram of 1201 a.h., or 1786 a.d. 
 
 2 Amir Khan Pindari, afterwards Nuwab of Tank. 
 
 3 Shah Abd-ul-aziz, of whom more hereafter. 
 
 4 In the Jagir of Faiz-ullah Khan, towards Rampur in Kohilkhand. 
 
PROGRESS OF THE APOSTLE , 1S20-1824. 
 
 13 
 
 During 1820 the Apostle journeyed slowly south- 
 wards, his disciples rendering him menial services in 
 acknowledgment of his spiritual dignity, and men of 
 rank and learning running like common servants, with 
 their shoes off, by the side of his palanquin. A pro- 
 tracted halt at Patna so swelled the number of his 
 followers as to require a regular system of Government. 
 He appointed agents to go forth and collect a tax from 
 the profits of trade in all the large towns which had lain 
 on his route. lie further nominated four Khalifs, 1 or 
 Spiritual Vicegerents, and a high priest, by a formal 
 Deed such as the Muhammadan Emperors used in 
 appointing governors of provinces. Having thus formed 
 a permanent centre at Patna, he proceeded towards 
 Calcutta, following the course of the Ganges, making 
 converts and appointing agents in every important 
 town by the way. In Calcutta the masses flocked to 
 him in such numbers, that he was unable even to go 
 through the ceremony of initiation by the separate lay- 
 ing on of hands. Unrolling his turban, therefore, he 
 declared that all who could touch any part of its ample 
 length became his disciples. In 1822 he made a re- 
 ligious journey to Mecca ; and having thus completely 
 covered his former character as a robber beneath the 
 sacred garb of a pilgrim, he returned in October of the 
 following year, by Bombay. Here his success as a 
 preacher was as great as it had been in Calcutta. But a 
 more congenial field lay before the freebooter-saint than 
 the peaceful population of an English Presidency town. 
 On his way back to Northern India, he enlisted a vast 
 
 1 Maulavi Wikiyat All ; Maulavi' Inayat Ah' ; Maulavi' Murhum (Marliamat ?) 
 Ah' ; and Maulavi' Furliat Ilusain ; besides Shah Muhammad Husain as chief 
 priest. 
 
14 
 
 HOLY WAR AGAINST THE SIKHS, 1827. 
 
 turbulent following 1 in his native District of Bareli; and 
 in 1824 made his appearance among the wild mountaineers 
 of the Peshawar Frontier, preaching a Holy War against 
 the rich Sikh towns of the Panjab. 
 
 The Pathan tribes responded with frantic enthusiasm 
 to his appeal. These most turbulent and most supersti- 
 tious of the Muhammadan peoples were only too delighted 
 to get a chance of plundering their Hindu neighbours 
 under the sanction of religion. The Sikhs, most 
 aggressive of modern Hindu races, at that time ruled 
 the Panjdb, and the Apostle assured the fanatic Musal- 
 man borderers that those who survived would return 
 laden with booty, while those who fell would be trans- 
 lated in a moment to Heaven as martyrs of the Faith. 
 He travelled through Kandahar and Cabul, raising the 
 country as he went, and consolidating his influence by 
 a skilful coalition 2 of the tribes. Their avarice was 
 enlisted by splendid promises of plunder; their religion, 
 by the assurance that he was divinely commissioned 
 to extirpate the whole Infidel world, from the Sikhs 
 even unto the Chinese. To the grave political leaders of 
 the mountains, the worldly-minded heads of tribes, he 
 expatiated on the necessity of checking the rise of the 
 adjoining Sikh Power, bitterly remembering his early 
 debt of hatred against the Hindu Ranjit Singh. After 
 thus arranging for the success of a religious manifesto, 
 he issued, in the name of God, a formal summons to all 
 devout Musalmdns to join the Holy War. ‘The Sikh 
 
 1 Who had been recruited by his high priest, Shdh Muhammad Husain. 
 
 2 The Yusafz&fe and Barakzdi's were his staunchest followers. The Chief 
 of Panjtar (Fathi Khan) afterwards joined him. and the important principality 
 of Swat. He also established himself in the State of Amb. The Huwab of 
 Tank, liis former leader, always remained a source of supplies both in money 
 and recruits. 
 
THE CALL TO HOLY WAR. 
 
 T 5 
 
 nation,’ runs this curious document, 1 have long held 
 sway in Lahor and other places. Their oppressions have 
 exceeded all bounds. Thousands of Muhammadans have 
 they unjustly killed, and on thousands they have heaped 
 disgrace. No longer do they allow the Call to Prayer 
 from the mosques, and the killing of cows they have 
 entirely prohibited. When at last their insulting tyranny 
 could no more be endured, Hazrat Sayyid Ahmad (may 
 his fortunes and blessings ever abide !), having for his 
 single object the protection of the Faith, took with him 
 a few Musalm&ns, and, going in the direction of Cabul 
 and Peshdwar, succeeded in rousing Muhammadans from 
 their slumber of indifference, and nerving their courage 
 for action. Praise be to God, some thousands of be- 
 lievers became ready at bis call to tread the path of 
 God’s service; and on the 21st December 1826, 1 the 
 Jihad against the Infidel Sikhs begins.’ Meanwhile the 
 holy man’s emissaries carried the Call to War through- 
 out all the cities of Northern India where he had made 
 disciples ; and the above proclamation is taken from a 
 tract published in the far inland Province of Oudh. 2 
 
 A fanatical War, of varying success, against the Sikhs 
 followed. Both sides massacred without mercy, and the 
 bitter hatred between the Muhammadan Crescentaders 
 and the Hindu Sikhs lives in a hundred local traditions. 
 Ilanjit Singh strengthened his Frontier by several of the 
 skilful generals whom the breaking up of the Napoleonic 
 armies had cast loose upon the world. The name of an 
 Italian soldier of fortune, General Avitabili, 3 is still on 
 
 1 The 20th Jumada-’s-saniya, 1242 Hijra. 
 
 2 The Targln'b-ul-Jihad, an incitement to religious war by a Maulavf of 
 Kanauj. Official Proceedings, 18G5. 
 
 3 I give the spelling of his name and his nationality according to local 
 tradition. 
 
i6 THE PANJAB OVERRUN, 1828-30. 
 
 the lips of the Peshawar peasantry. The Muhammadans 
 burst down from time to time upon the plains, burning 
 and murdering wherever they went. On the other hand, 
 the bold Sikh villagers armed en masse , beat back the hill 
 fanatics into their mountains, and hunted them down like 
 beasts. The fierce passions of the time have left behind 
 a land-tenure of a horrible nature — a Tenure by Blood. 
 The Hindu borderers still display with pride a Grant for 
 their village lands on payment of a hundred heads of the 
 ITusainkhail tribe as yearly rent. 
 
 In regular engagements the tumultuous Army of the 
 Crescent proved no match for the disciplined cohorts of 
 the Sikhs. In 1827 the Prophet led his bands against 
 one of their entrenched Camps, and was repulsed with 
 great slaughter. But the lowland general dared not 
 follow up his victory. The fanatical bands fell back across 
 the Indus into the mountains, and so increased their fame 
 by guerilla successes, that the Sikh chief found himself 
 compelled to buy the alliance of the very tribes who had 
 been foremost in the raids. In 1829 the lowlanders 
 trembled for the safety of Peshawar itself, their Frontier 
 Capital, and the Governor 1 basely attempted to put an 
 end to the war by poisoning the Prophet. This rumour 
 inflamed the zeal of the Muhammadan highlanders to 
 a red heat. They burst down in fury on the plains, 
 massacred the Infidel Army, and mortally wounded its 
 general. Peshawar was only saved by a force under 
 Prince Slier Singh and General Ventura. The Prophet’s 
 influence had now spread as far as Kashmir, and troops 
 from every discontented prince of Northern India flocked 
 to his camp. Itanjit Singh, the head of the great Sikh 
 confederacy, hurried up a force under his most skilful 
 1 lie was a Muhammadan, but the mere creature of the Sikh Ran jit Singh. 
 
CLIMAX OF THE APOSTLES FORTUNES, 1830 . 17 
 
 lieutenants. In spite of a reverse in June 1830, 1 the 
 Apostolic Army occupied the plains in overwhelming 
 force ; and before the end of the year, Peshawar itself, 
 the Western Capital of the Panjab, had fallen. 
 
 This marks the culminating point in the Prophet’s 
 career. He proclaimed himself Khalif, and struck coins 
 bearing the legend, ‘Ahmad the Just, Defender of the 
 Faith; the glitter of whose scimetar scatters destruction 
 among the Infidels.’ But the dismay caused by the fall 
 of Peshawar brought the matchless diplomacy of Ranjit 
 Singh into the field. The wily Sikh detached the petty 
 Muhammadan Principalities from the Army of the Crescent 
 by separate appeals to their self-interest, and the Prophet 
 found himself compelled to abandon the city on condition 
 of a ransom being paid. The internal dissensions among 
 his followers soon defied all control. His regular troops 
 consisted of Hindustani fanatics, Muhammadans from the 
 Indian Provinces, who accepted his fortunes for good or 
 for evil, and who, in fact, would have found it impossible 
 to desert him. The Army of the Crescent, however, was 
 swollen with hosts of Frontier Pathans, who, with all 
 the valour, possessed all the pride and avarice, of moun- 
 taineers. On one occasion, an important tribe of these 
 borderers had deserted on the eve of battle, 2 and the 
 fanatics had afterwards taken a severe retribution. The 
 Prophet felt the necessity of liberality to the Hindustani 
 followers, on whom he could always depend. At first he 
 confined himself to levying tithes for their support from 
 his Frontier adherents. This they bore with little re- 
 luctance, as a religious contribution to the good cause. 
 But after both sides had been inflamed by such exac- 
 
 1 By the Sikh Army under General Allard and Hari Singh Nalwa. 
 
 2 The Barakzais, at the engagement with the Sikhs near Saidu. 
 
 B 
 
1 8 II/S DEFEA T AND BE A TH, 1831 . 
 
 tions, the Prophet began to lose ground. His talents 
 were rather those of a fanatical incendiary than of an 
 impartial ruler of a great coalition, and the wonderful 
 influence which he had acquired over the Frontier tribes 
 soon showed signs of melting away. As he found his 
 power waning, he had more frequently recourse to severi- 
 ties, and at length wounded the feelings of the moun- 
 taineers in their most tender point. He entered upon an 
 ill-advised effort to reform the marriage customs of the 
 highlanders, who practically sold their daughters in wed- 
 lock to the highest bidder ; and as his Indian followers 
 had left house and home, and were without wives, he 
 issued an edict that every girl not married within twelve 
 days should become the property of his lieutenants. The 
 tribes rose and massacred his Hindustani retinue, and 
 the Prophet himself narrowly escaped. 1 But his reign 
 was over; and in 1831, while aiding one of his former 
 lieutenants who had set up for himself, the Prophet was 
 surprised by a Sikh Army under Prince Sher Singh, and 
 slain. 2 
 
 The religious character of the movement belongs to 
 a later portion of this Work. Neither in India nor any- 
 where else can a religious leader stir the hearts of a people 
 without a genuine belief in the goodness of his cause. 
 In my next chapter I shall unfold the nobler aspects 
 of Sayyid Ahmad’s career. Meanwhile I have dwelt at 
 
 1 From Panjtar to the Valley of Paklf. 
 
 2 At Balakot, in May 1831. I have collected the foregoing Account of 
 Sayyid Ahmad from the Records of the Foreign Office and Home Department, 
 Government of India, along with the evidence that has come out in the suc- 
 cessive State Trials from 1852 to 1870, and from a valuable memorandum by 
 Mr. T. E. Ravenshaw, late Magistrate of Patna. Several of the details will be 
 found in Captain Cunningham’s Work on the Sikhs. A writer, who has ap- 
 parently used some of the same materials, has put forth a good account of the 
 Wahabis in the Calcutta Review , vols. c., ci., and cii. 
 
THE FANATIC CAMP FORMED , 1832. 
 
 19 
 
 some length upon the origin of the Fanatical Settlement, 
 because I propose very briefly to dismiss its further his- 
 tory, till it emerges in its present phase as a Rebel Camp 
 on our own Frontier. Among the chief lieutenants of 
 the Prophet were two brothers, grandsons of a notorious 
 murderer 1 who had fled for his life to the mountains 
 beyond the Indus, and there established himself as a 
 hermit at Sittdna. The refugee ascetic gradually ac- 
 quired the veneration of the mountaineers, who made 
 over to him the lands on which his hermitage stood, as 
 an asylum and a neutral ground, — a very convenient 
 provision among tribes constantly engaged in blood- 
 feuds. One of his grandsons, 2 who had served as Trea- 
 surer to the Prophet, succeeded to the Village of Refuge 
 at Sittdna, and invited thither the remnants of the Apos- 
 tolic Host. 
 
 About the same time, the religious head of the Prin- 
 cipality of Swat, having taken alarm at the progress of 
 the British Power, determined to strengthen himself by 
 establishing a firm regal Government. He accordingly 
 invited the other grandson 3 of the hermit to the Swat 
 valleys, and made him King. By this means he fortified 
 the natural valour of his subjects, by the assurance that, 
 having now a hero of the Crescentade at the head of their 
 troops, all who might fall in the apprehended conflict 
 with the English or Hindu Infidels would enjoy a martyr’s 
 reward. The fears of the Swdt tribes were not, how- 
 ever, destined to be realized ; and their King reigned till 
 1857, when he died, and no successor was elected. His 
 son, 4 now the head of the family, claims the leadership 
 
 1 Zami'n Shah, a native of Takhtaband in Bon air. 
 
 2 Sayyid Omar Shah. 3 Sayyid Akbar Shah. 
 
 4 Sayyid Mubarak Shah. 
 
20 
 
 THE FANATIC CAMP , 1833-46. 
 
 of the Fanatical Host at Sittana, and asserts a wavering 
 pretension to the realm of Swat. 
 
 In this wa}’ the fanatics firmly established a twofold 
 power upon the Frontier, and by their emissaries among 
 the superstitious border tribes, kept alive the embers of 
 the Holy War. During intervals of many years they 
 sank into the insignificance of border freebooters, but 
 from time to time fired up into a fierce Army of the 
 Crescent. They perpetrated endless depredations and 
 massacres upon their Hindu neighbours before we an- 
 nexed the Panjab, annually recruiting their Camp with 
 Muhammadan zealots from the British Districts. We 
 took no precautions to prevent our subjects flocking to a 
 Fanatical Colony which spent its fury on the Sikhs, — -.an 
 uncertain coalition of tribes, sometimes our friends and 
 sometimes our enemies. An English gentleman, who had 
 large Indigo factories in our North-Western Provinces, 
 tells me that it was customary for all pious M us aim fins in 
 his employ to lay aside a fixed share of their wages for 
 the Sittana Encampment. The more daring spirits went 
 to serve for longer or shorter periods under the fanatic 
 leaders. As his Hindu overseers every now and then 
 begged for a holiday for the annual celebration of their 
 father’s obsecpties, so the Muhammadan bailiffs were wont 
 between 1830 and 1846 to allege the religions duty of 
 joining the Crescentaders as a ground for a few months’ 
 leave. 
 
 For the remissness which thus permitted our subjects 
 to join the Fanatic Host against our Sikh neighbours, we 
 were destined to pay dear. The Prophet 1 had established 
 
 1 By the ‘ Prophet’ I invariably mean Sayyid Ahmad. Technically he was 
 an Imam (Leader) from the political point of view, and a Wall (Favourite of 
 God) from the theological one. Strictly speaking, the hue of the true Prophets 
 ended with Christ and Muhammad. 
 
OUR SUBJECTS RECRUIT IT. 21 
 
 a regular system of Apostolic Successors, both in our 
 territories and upon the Sikh Frontier. The movement 
 was thus placed beyond the contingencies of the life or 
 death of any of the individual leaders, and his own decease 
 had been converted by the zeal of his followers into an 
 apotheosis for the further spread of the Faith. Two of 
 the Khalifs or Vicegerents whom he had appointed at 
 Patna in 1821 made a pilgrimage to the Frontier, and 
 ascertained that their leaders disappearance was a 
 miracle ; that indeed he was still alive, and would 
 manifest himself in due time at the head of a Holy 
 Army, and expel the English Infidels from India. His 
 Deputies continued therefore to levy money and men, 
 but especially money, in the chief towns along the 
 valley of the Ganges where the Prophet had preached 
 on his journey to Calcutta in 1820-22. A perennial 
 stream of malcontents thus flowed from our territory to 
 the Fanatic Colony. Absconding debtors, escaped con- 
 victs, spendthrifts too ruined to be at peace with social 
 order, traitors too guilty to hope for mercy from the 
 law, — all flocked from the British Plains to this cave of 
 Adullam in the North. There were also refugees of a 
 nobler sort, and every Muhammadan religionist too zea- 
 lous to live quietly under a Christian Government, girded 
 up his loins and made for the Sittana Camp. Their hand 
 fell heaviest upon the Sikh villages, but they hailed with 
 fierce delight any chance of inflicting a blow upon the 
 English Infidel. They sent a great force to help our 
 enemies in the Cabul War, and a thousand of them re- 
 mained stedfast against us to the death. In the fall 
 of Ghazni alone, three hundred obtained the joys of 
 martyrdom from the points of English bayonets. 
 
 On our annexation of the Panjab, the fanatic fury, 
 
22 
 
 THE FANATICS TURN AGAINST US, 1847 . 
 
 which had formerly spent itself upon the Sikhs, was 
 transferred to their successors. Hindus and English 
 were alike Infidels in the eyes of the Sittana Host, and 
 as such, were to be exterminated by the sword. The 
 disorders which we had connived at, or at least viewed 
 with indifference, upon the Sikh Frontier, now descended 
 as a hitter inheritance to ourselves. 
 
 The records of the Patna Court show that the Vice- 
 gerents 1 early established a character for themselves on 
 the Frontier as fanatical firebrands. In 1847, Sir Henry 
 Fawrence recorded a proceeding 2 to the effect that they 
 were well known as fighters for religion 3 in the Panjab ; 
 and as such, they were forwarded under custody to their 
 homes in Patna. The Magistrate there took security 
 from them, and from two other of the most wealthy mem- 
 bers of their sect, for their future good conduct. But 
 in 1850 I find them preaching sedition in the Rajshahi 
 District of Lower Bengal, where they had also to give 
 bonds to keep the peace, and on the repetition of their 
 offence were twice turned out of the District. 4 In 1851, 
 the same Vicegerents, 5 or successors of the Prophet, 
 although hound, so far as parchment bonds and sureties 
 could restrain them, to remain at their homes in Patna, 
 were found disseminating treason on the Panjab Frontier. 6 
 
 In 1852 they deemed their plans ripe for execution. 
 Money and men from our territory had poured into the 
 Sittana Camp, and a treasonable correspondence with our 
 
 1 Indy at and Wilayat Ah'. 
 
 2 Magistrates’ Becords, dated 13th April 1847. 
 
 3 Ghozat or Mujahidun. Their title of Wahabi belongs to a later period, 
 and will be explained in Chapter II. 
 
 4 Proceedings of the Magistrate of Edjshdhf, dated 23d February 1850. 
 
 5 Inayat and Wilayat Ah'. 
 
 e Proceeding of Board of Eevenue, dated 12 tli May 1851. 
 
FANATIC COLONY BECOMES A REBEL CAMP. 23 
 
 troops was seized by the Panjab authorities. Their 
 leaders made a skilful attempt to tamper with the 4th 
 Native Infantry, stationed at Rawal Pindi, conveniently 
 near to the Fanatic Colony; and one of the first Regi- 
 ments which, on their invading our Province, would have 
 been sent to act against them. The letters distinctly 
 proved that they had established a regular organisation 
 for passing up men and arms from Bengal to the Rebel 
 Camp. At the same time the Patna Magistrate reported 1 
 that the rebel sect were upon the increase in that city. 
 Sedition was openly preached by the principal inhabitants 
 of this capital of a British Province. The police had 
 leagued themselves with the fanatics ; and one of their 
 leaders 2 assembled seven hundred men in his house, and 
 declared his resolve to resist any further investigation of 
 the Magistrate by force of arms. 
 
 The British Government could no longer shut its 
 eyes to the existence of a great treasonable organisation 
 within its territories, for supplying money and men to the 
 Fanatical Camp on the Frontier. During the autumn of 
 1852, Lord Dalhousie recorded two important Minutes 
 on the subject. By the first he directed the internal 
 organisation to be closely watched. The second had to 
 deal with a proposition for a Frontier War against the 
 border tribes, whose superstitious hatred to the Infidel 
 the Hindustani fanatics had again fanned to a red heat. 
 In the same year they attacked our ally, the Chief of the 
 Amb State, and necessitated the despatch of a British 
 force. In 1853, several of our native soldiers were con- 
 victed of correspondence with the traitors. 
 
 I do not propose to trace in detail the insults, raids, 
 and murders which led to the Frontier War of 1858 
 
 1 O 11 the 19th of August 1852. 2 Maulavi Ahmad-ullah. 
 
24 
 
 FANATIC WAR OF 1858. 
 
 Throughout the whole period the fanatics kept the border 
 tribes in a state of chronic hostility to the British Power. 
 A single fact will speak volumes. Between 1850 and 
 1857 the Frontier disorders forced ns to send out sixteen 
 distinct expeditions, aggregating 33,000 Regular Troops ; 
 and between 1850 and 1863 the number rose to twenty 
 separate expeditions, aggregating 60,000 Regular Troops, 
 besides Irregular Auxiliaries and Police. During this 
 time the Sittana Colony, although stirring up a perpetual 
 spirit of fanaticism along the Frontier, had wisely avoided 
 direct collision with our troops. They might secretly 
 help the tribes whom they had incited against us, but 
 they did not dare to wage war on their own account. 
 But in 1857 they openly formed a coalition against us, 1 
 and had the audacity to call on the British authorities 
 to help them in collecting their Black Mail. Incensed 
 by our refusal, they came boldly down upon our territory, 
 and made a night attack on the camp of Lieutenant 
 Horne, the Assistant Commissioner, who scarcely escaped 
 with his life. Retaliation could no longer be delayed, 
 and General Sir Sidney Cotton entered the hills with an 
 Army of 5000 men. 2 As this is only the first of several 
 Wars into which the Fanatic Camp has plunged our 
 Frontier, I propose to dismiss it briefly and to take the 
 second — that of 1863 — as an illustration of such cam- 
 paigns. After some difficulties, our Column burned the 
 villages of the rebel allies, razed or blew up the two most 
 important forts, and destroyed the Traitor Settlement at 
 Sittana. The fanatics, however, merely fell back into 
 the fastnesses of the Mahaban mountain ; and so little 
 had we shaken their power, that they immediately re- 
 
 1 Particularly of the Yusafzai and Pan j tar Tribes. 
 
 2 Artillery, 219 ; Cavalry, 551 ; Infantry, 4107 ; total, 4877 Regular Troops. 
 
DISSENSIONS IN THE CAMP, 1859-61. 
 
 2 5 
 
 ceived a new inner Settlement at Malka as a gift from 
 a neighbouring tribe. 1 
 
 The Fanatic Camp bad other enemies, however, be- 
 sides the British troops. Every now and then, in an 
 access of religious self-confidence, they tried to levy tithes 
 from the adjoining highland clans. According to the 
 individual influence of the preacher who acted as the tax- 
 gatherer, these exactions were submitted to, or evaded, or 
 refused. A constant source of irritation thus smouldered 
 among the mountains. We have seen how it alienated 
 the tribes from the Prophet himself, and led to his de- 
 sertion and death in 1831. When a clan refused tithes, 
 the Fanatic Colony descended en masse, cut the crops 
 of the recalcitrants, and carried off the harvest. In 1858 
 the tribal resistance against this religious taxation cul- 
 minated in an attack upon Sit tan a itself, in which 
 the fanatic leader 2 fell. The Rebel Settlement thus 
 weakened, both by Sir Sidney Cotton’s campaign and by 
 the defection of its firmest allies, remained cpiiet for two 
 years. We made over the Sittana lands to the tribe 3 
 which had resisted the tithing emissaries and slain the 
 Fanatic chief. From this, and another adjoining clan, 4 
 we took engagements that they would never allow the 
 fanatics to re-enter their territory, and that they would 
 declare war on any third tribe which should endeavour 
 to bring them in. They also bound themselves to pre- 
 vent the fanatics or other desperate characters from 
 passing through their country, on marauding expeditions 
 against the British Frontier. 
 
 But scarcely two years elapsed before the Rebel 
 
 1 The Amazais. 
 
 2 Sayyid Omar Shah, killed by the Atmanzai' tribe. 
 
 3 The Atmanzai's. 4 The Jaduns. 
 
26 A SECOND WAR NECESSARY, 1862 . 
 
 Colony had regained its influence among the superstitious 
 highland races. In 1861 they advanced from Malka, the 
 interior retreat upon the Mahaban, into which Sir Sidney 
 Cotton had driven them in 1858, and fortified themselves 1 
 on a peak just above their old Settlement of Sittana. 
 From this stronghold they burst down upon our villages ; 
 and the very tribes who had pledged themselves to pre- 
 vent their ingress, gave them free passage through their 
 territory on their kidnapping raids. As if to announce 
 the return of the old state of things with a note of 
 triumph, the fanatics descended upon our Rawal Pindi 
 District, and murdered two travellers in open day upon 
 the high road, and almost within sight of a strong Police 
 Station. 2 Three weeks later they again came down upon 
 our territory, carried off three wealthy merchants, and 
 coolly entered into a correspondence with our officers, 
 demanding a ransom of Rs. 1550 for our captive subjects. 
 Of this sum the fanatic leader was to receive one half. 
 Another kidnapping inroad took place immediately after, 
 in April 1861. The Frontier authorities reported that 
 things had returned to the old disgraceful turbulence of 
 1858. It was in vain that the British officers appealed 
 to the faith and to the fears of our allied tribes. Al- 
 though several of their villages lay at our mercy, they 
 cast in their lot with their co-religionists, and no course 
 remained but retribution. We accordingly established a 
 strict blockade of the offending tribes ; completely cutting 
 off their communication from the outside world, and 
 taking prisoner any of them that ventured across the 
 line. This brought them to reason. They again entered 
 into engagements, and forced the Rebel Colony to retire 
 from the Sittana territory to its interior fastness at Malka. 
 
 1 At Sin. 2 On the 14th February 1861. 
 
FANATIC ATTACKS IN 1863. 
 
 27 
 
 Nevertheless our disloyal Hindustani subjects con- 
 tinued to flock to the Traitors’ Camp ; and in 1862 their 
 numbers had so increased that the Panjab Government 
 felt compelled to advise another Frontier War. Indeed, 
 things had now reached such a height, that the Secretary 
 of State declared his belief 1 that the rebels would have, 
 sooner or later, to be expelled by force of arms, and that 
 they were a lasting source of danger so long as they 
 remained on our border. It was, however, impossible to 
 undertake an expedition on the moment, and early in 
 April 1863 we find them murdering and plundering 
 within our territory. In July of that year they boldly 
 re-occupied their Sittana Settlement, and sent threaten- 
 ing messages to our feudatory, the Chief of Amb. The 
 neighbouring tribes again sacrificed their fidelity to their 
 fanaticism, and scattered their engagements with us to 
 the winds. The Traitor Colony was once more supreme 
 upon the Frontier. On the 7th September 1863 the 
 Fanatic Host came down upon British territory, and by 
 a night attack upon the camp of our Guide Corps, gave 
 the signal for open war. A week later they invaded our 
 Amb Feudatoiy, destroyed his villages upon the Black 
 Mountain, and gave battle to his outposts. In the same 
 month they burst down on our friendly levies of Tanawal, 
 cutting up a native officer with a party of men. Not 
 content with attacking our allies, they fired on our own 
 pickets upon the banks of the Indus, 2 and in a formal 
 manifesto declared war against the English Infidels, and 
 summoned all good Musalmans to the Crescentade. 
 
 We had therefore arrived at precisely the same state 
 of affairs as that which in 1827-30 ended in the occupa- 
 tion of the Panjab by the Fanatic Host, and the fall of 
 
 1 Despatch of 7tlx April 1862. 2 At Nawagiran. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 the Frontier Capital. It became impossible any longer 
 to avoid a War. Frontier campaigns, however, are little 
 instructive as military performances, and they shed but 
 small lustre upon the stronger Power. The ultimate 
 issue of a conflict between a vast military Empire like 
 British India, and a coalition of savage tribes, however 
 brave and however strongly supported by religious zeal, 
 cannot be doubtful. There is, moreover, a sameness 
 about such operations, and a certainty in the severe retri- 
 bution in which, sooner or later, they end, almost sicken- 
 ing to a Christian man. I shall therefore select only one 
 of our expeditions against the Fanatic Colony for detailed 
 description. It will be found, that as the Traitor Camp 
 has been for years a cause of disgrace to our Frontier 
 during peace, so it became a prolific source of disaster to 
 our Armies in time of war. So long as we left it alone, 
 it steadily sent forth bands to kidnap and murder our 
 subjects and our allies : when we tried to extirpate it by 
 arms, it baffled our leaders, inflicted severe losses on our 
 troops, and for a time defied the whole Frontier Force of 
 British India. 
 
 It is easy to understand how a Settlement of traitors 
 and refugees, backed by the seditious and fanatical masses 
 within our Empire, could, in an access of bigoted hatred, 
 throw down the gauntlet. But it is difficult to compre- 
 hend how they could, even for a time, withstand the 
 combined strategy and weight of a civilised Army. In 
 order to explain this, it becomes necessary to briefly de- 
 scribe the country in which their Prophet had fixed the 
 Headquarters of his militant sect. 
 
 In the extreme north of the Indus Yalley, upon the 
 boundary of the last tribe which owes allegiance to the 
 British Crown, rises the Sacred Peak of the Hindus. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 
 
 29 
 
 The Mahaban, literally the Great Forest, that clothed its 
 slopes, seems to have impressed the early Aryan immi- 
 grants more deeply than any other physical phenomenon 
 which they met with on their primeval southern journey. 
 It gave the name to the mountain itself ; and the cluster 
 of peaks and ranges, which tower to the height of 7400 
 feet on the west bank of the Indus, are still known as 
 Mahdban — the Great Forest. These peaks became to 
 their race what Sinai was to the Jews. Sanskrit poetry 
 crystallised the veneration of the primitive time, and for 
 ages the Mahaban has continued a place of pilgrimage 
 among the devout Hindus. Amid those solemn heights 
 Arjuna fought single-handed with the Great God, 1 and, 
 although defeated like Jacob of old, won the Irresistible 
 Weapon from the Deity. Happy was the ancient hermit 
 who could lay his bones beneath the shadows of the 
 Great Forest, where tradition affirmed that even the 
 lesser divinities themselves were wont, by fasting and 
 solitude, to cleanse such delicts as celestial natures may 
 be capable of. 2 
 
 In this retreat of primitive Hindu piety, a number of 
 violent and superstitious Muhammadan tribes now dwell. 
 Petty Principalities, not less fierce or less fanatical, 
 occupy the Black Mountain on the other side of the 
 Indus to the east, and demand the constant surveillance 
 of an advanced British force at Abbottabad. The ques- 
 tion of tithes, and similar spiritual exactions, prevent any 
 permanent coalition with the Fanatical Settlement ; but 
 the tribes are liable to bursts of religious excitement, and 
 are always delighted to get a chance of plundering the 
 
 1 Mahadeva. 
 
 2 Here, and in Chapter II., I have made use of an article which I put 
 forth seven years ago iu the Calcutta Quarterly Review. 
 
I HE CAMPAIGN OF 1863 . 
 
 3° 
 
 rich Hindu villages within our Frontier. The Spiritual 
 Principality, or, as it may he called, Muhammadan See of 
 Swdt, contains alone a population of 96,000, every man 
 of whom is bred up in a hereditary apprehension of a 
 British invasion, and in a conviction that if he must fight 
 against the Infidels, it is wise to have a religious leader 
 whose banner will confer the joys of martyrdom on those 
 who fall. The Campaign of 1863 taught us to our cost 
 that an expedition against the Fanatical Encampment 
 may mean a war with a coalition of 53,000 fighting 
 men 1 of the bravest races in the world. The inaccessible 
 character of the country renders the temper and the in- 
 ternal relations of the tribes a matter of uncertainty with 
 our Frontier officers ; and whenever the Rebel Settlement 
 suffers a defeat, it has merely to fall back deeper into the 
 recesses of the MaMban. 
 
 On the 18th October 1863, a British Army of 7000 
 men, 2 under General Sir Neville Chamberlain, moved out 
 with a train of artillery, and a supply at its command of 
 4000 mules and other beasts of burden, for which the 
 whole Panjab had been ransacked. Next evening a 
 Column entered, by a night march, the defile overgrown 
 with brushwood and overhung by trees, disastrously 
 known as the Ambeyla Pass. Our base of operations 
 was held by a strong cordon of troops, 3 and behind these 
 
 1 I giYe the number of fighting men which each tiibe can, without difficulty, 
 turn out : — Husainzafs, 2000 ; Akazafs, 1000 ; Cliigazdi's, 6000 ; Madakhail, 
 4000 ; Amazon's, 1500 ; Jaduns, 4000 ; Khudakhail, 2000 ; Bonairs, 12,000 ; 
 Bajaurs, 3000; Ranizafs, 2000; Dher Clan, 6000; Swat tribes, 10,000 — Total, 
 53,500. I have taken these numbers from the Foreign Office Records, verified 
 as far as possible by reference to Colonel Macgregor, who is engaged in the 
 Frontier Gazetteer. The actual number in the field against us in 1863 rose at 
 one time to 60,000. 
 
 2 Infantry, Regulars, 5150 ; Cavalry, Regulars, 200 ; Artillery, 280 ; above 
 1000 Irregulars under the Civil Commissioner, and 13 guns. 
 
 3 At Darband, 350 European Infantry, 250 Native Infantry, and 3 guns. 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1863 . 
 
 3i 
 
 were the heavily-garrisoned Frontier Stations, 1 filled with 
 Cavalry, Infantry, and Artillery. It was fortunate that 
 the invading force was thus supported ; for on the 20th 
 the General found that the tribes whom he had con- 
 sidered friendly were wavering, and two days afterwards 
 he telegraphed to Government that the force had had to 
 come to a halt before getting out of the Pass. On the 
 23d the opposition of the tribes declared itself. The 
 Bonairs attacked a reconnoitering party, and a few days 
 later the Spiritual Head of the Swat Principality 2 threw 
 in his lot with the enemy. Meanwhile, telegram after 
 telegram reached the Government from the Frontier, 
 begging for more and yet more troops. Our army had 
 got locked up in a perilous defile. A wing of the 
 Firozpur Regiment was ordered to the Frontier. Another 
 Regiment of Infantry had to be hurried westwards from 
 Peshawar. The 93d Highlanders advanced by forced 
 marches from Sialkot, and the 23d and 24th Native 
 Infantry from Lahor. Before three weeks were over, 
 the Panjtib Stations had been so denuded of troops, that 
 
 At TorbeM, one squadron of Native Cavalry, and details of Native Infantry. 
 At Topi, 150 Native Cavalry, 250 Native Infantry, and 2 guns. At Abbotta- 
 bad, one company of the 93d Highlanders, depots of the 5th Gurkhas and 1st 
 PanjYib Infantry, 50 Native Cavalry, and 3 guns. At Rustam Bazar, 300 
 Native Cavalry, and details of Native Infantry. At Mardan, a depot of the 
 Guide Corps. 
 
 1 At Peshawar, besides several batteries of Artillery, there were 1 Regiment 
 of Hussars, 1 Regiment of European Infantry, 2 Regiments of Bengal Cavalry, 
 and 3 Regiments of Native Infantry — the last weak in effective men, and having 
 to hold outposts, which took up one Regiment. At Rawal Pindf, 1 Regiment 
 of Native Infantry, out of which 120 men were at Mari; 1 Battery of Artillery, 
 one company of the 93d Highlanders, and depots of the 51st and 101st. At 
 Kohat, 2 guns, 2 squadrons Native Cavalry, and 2 Regiments Panjab Infantry, 
 but weak. At Bannu, 2 guns, 1 Regiment Pan jab Cavalry, and 1 Regiment 
 Panjab Infantry. At Dera Isma’il Khan, 2 guns, 1 Regiment Panjab Cavalry, 
 and 1 Regiment Panjab Infantry. 
 
 2 An ascetic chief named Abd-ul-ghafur, who had long exercised a super- 
 stitious ascendency over the Yusafzai clans, and who is regarded with reverence 
 by the Pathan tribes in general. 
 
3 2 
 
 OUR ARMY COOPED IN THE PASS. 
 
 the officer commanding at Mianmir could with difficulty 
 supply a guard of twenty-four bayonets for the Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor. 
 
 Meanwhile the tribes were closing in upon our little 
 Army. To advance was impossible ; to move backward 
 would have been worse than defeat. Our position gave 
 every advantage to clans trained from boyhood in moun- 
 tain war ; and the following extract from the Journal of 
 an officer, gives a fair idea of the disasters to which our 
 troops were exposed : — 
 
 ‘ The 20th, after recalling their outlying parties, re- 
 tired, fighting the whole way into Camp, which they did 
 not reach till long after dark. The enemy were in some 
 strength, and tried to force their way into the lines ; but 
 by this time every one was ready for them, and they 
 were met by a sharp file-fire from the Enfield rifles, and 
 grape from the mountain-train guns. The night attack 
 formed a curious and picturesque scene ; the dark line of 
 the jungle to the front; on the right and left the two 
 port-fires of the mountain-train shining like stars, whilst 
 between them a dim line of Infantry stretched across the 
 valley. Suddenly comes a wild shout of Allah ! Allah ! 
 the matchlocks flash and crack from the shadows of the 
 trees ; there is a glitter of wdiirling sword-blades, and a 
 mob of dusky figures rush across the open space, and 
 charge almost up to the bayonets. Then comes a flash 
 and a roar, the grape and canister dash up the stones 
 and gravel, and patter amongst the leaves at close range. 
 The whole line lits up with the fitful flashes of a sharp 
 file-fire, and as the smoke clears off, the assailants are 
 nowhere to be seen ; feeble groans from the front, and 
 cries for water in some Patlian patois , alone tell us that 
 the fire has been effectual. Presently comes another 
 
THE FATAL AMBEYLA PASS, 1863 . 
 
 33 
 
 shot or two in a new direction. A few rolling stones on 
 the hill inform the quick ears of the native troops that 
 the enemy is attempting to take us in flank, and they 
 push up to meet them at once : and so the line of fire, 
 and sharp cracking of our rifles, extends gradually far up 
 the dark and precipitous hill-side ; and the roar of battle, 
 multiplied a thousand- fold by the echoes of the moun- 
 tain, fills the long valley from end to end. Then there 
 is another shout and charge, more grape and musketry, 
 which end as before. But this time a dark group, 
 which moves slowly through our line, and carries ten- 
 derly some heavy burden, tells us that their shooting too 
 has told. 
 
 ‘ Presently from near the centre of the line comes a 
 voice so full of command, that all stop to listen and pre- 
 pare to obey. The order is, “ Cease firing ; let them 
 charge up to the bayonet, and then ” — The rest is lost, 
 but every soldier knows well how the sentence ended, 
 and stays his hand, waiting in deep silence, which con- 
 trasts strangely with the previous uproar. High up on 
 a little knoll well to the front we see the tall form of the 
 General towering above his staff, and looking intently 
 into the darkness before him. Apparently, however, they 
 had had enough, and but a few straggling shots from 
 time to time told that an enemy, of whose numbers we 
 could form no idea, still lay in the jungle before us. 
 Presently these also ceased ; but long afterwards we 
 could hear their footsteps, and the stones rolling on the 
 hills as they retired, and judged that they must be 
 carrying off their dead and wounded, or they would have 
 moved more quietly .’ 1 
 
 Every day’s delay encouraged the hopes and strengtli- 
 
 1 Calcutta Review , vol. lxxix. p. 201. 
 
 C 
 
34 
 
 THE FATAL AMBEYLA PASS , 1863. 
 
 enecl the fanatical zeal of the enemy. In spite of the re- 
 inforcements, our General found it impossible to advance. 
 The British Army lay for weeks, to all appearance cowed 
 within the Pass, not daring to emerge into the Chumla 
 Valley. Meanwhile the enemy, now swollen with the 
 Baj aur tribes, threatened us simultaneously in front ; 
 upon our left flank ; and on our rear communications. 
 The Panjab Government anxiously inquired on the 8th 
 November, if the General, on receiving a reinforcement 
 of 1600 Infantry, would advance to destroy the Fanatic 
 Colony at Malka. On the 12th the answer came that 
 2000 more Infantry and some guns would be needed in 
 order to render any forward movement practicable, and 
 with the dispiriting intimation that the General depre- 
 cated any advance on Malka until the intermediate tribes 
 could be brought to terms. 
 
 The whole Frontier was now in a flame. On the 
 4th November the Panjab Government had found its 
 military line so dangerously stripped of troops, that it 
 borrowed a part of the escort belonging to the Viceroy’s 
 Camp, and hurried forward the 7th Fusiliers to the 
 Frontier. A strong body of military police, horse and 
 foot, were also sent to protect the rear communications, 
 which the enemy had threatened. For the transport 
 equipage, 4200 camels and 2100 mules were pressed in 
 hot haste, and at an enormous cost, from our Panjab 
 Districts. 1 By the 14th November things had assumed 
 a still more serious aspect, and the Commander-in-Chief 
 of the British Forces in India hurried up to Lahor, and 
 assumed the direction himself. 
 
 The truth is, that the Plan of the Campaign had 
 completely failed. The original idea was, by a sudden 
 
 1 Panjab Government Letter of 18th February 1864. para. 67. 
 
OUR PICKETS DRIVEN IN, NOVEMBER 18 . 
 
 35 
 
 march through the Pass to occupy the open Valley be- 
 yond. 1 The Imperial Government had ordered that the 
 whole operations should be completed by the 15th No- 
 vember. On the 14th, however, our Army still found it 
 impossible to get out of the defile ; and instead of a series 
 of operations in an open valley, where the resources of 
 civilised war could come into play, we had to undertake 
 the defence of a very extended position in the hills. On 
 the same day the Panjab Government begged that an 
 additional Brigade of 1500 men might be sent to the 
 Frontier ; and on the 19th, a telegram from General 
 Chamberlain gave rise to most serious apprehensions as 
 to whether the reinforcements would not arrive too late. 
 On the 18th the enemy had attacked us in force, taking 
 one of our pickets, and driving us back with a loss of 1 1 4 
 men, killed and wounded, besides officers. Next day the 
 enemy again captured a picket, subsequently retaken 
 after a bloody struggle, in which our General was him- 
 self dangerously hit, and 128 men, besides officers, left 
 killed or liors cle combat. On the 20th the sick and 
 wounded, whom it had become absolutely necessary to 
 send away, amounted to 425. The General's telegram of 
 the 19th concluded as follows: — ‘The troops have now 
 been hard worked both day and night for a month, and 
 having to meet fresh enemies with loss is telling. We 
 much need reinforcements. I find it difficult to meet the 
 enemy’s attacks and provide convoj’s for supplies and 
 wounded sent to the rear. If you can give some fresh 
 corps to relieve those most reduced in numbers and dash, 
 
 1 Letter of the Panjab Government, dated Labor, 1st February 1864, 
 para. 78. This document is the one which I have chiefly used for my account 
 of the expedition. I can scarcely hope that the Narrative of so disastrous a 
 campaign will escape hostile criticism, but I can only say that every state- 
 ment I make is based upon the most carefully verified Official Reports. 
 
36 STILL IN THE PASS , DECEMBER 1863. 
 
 the relieved corps can be sent to the plains and used in 
 support. This is urgent.’ 
 
 A great political catastrophe was now dreaded. Our 
 Army, wearied out with daily attacks, might at any mo- 
 ment be seized with a panic, and driven back pell-mell, 
 with immense slaughter, through the Pass. Such a mis- 
 adventure, although costing fewer lives than a single 
 great battle, would have ruined our prestige on the 
 Frontier, and entailed political disasters, the end of 
 which it was impossible to foretell. The Panjab Govern- 
 ment accordingly decided that, if General Chamberlain 
 found it needful, the whole force should quietly retreat 
 to Permauli. But the caution of the Panjab Statesmen 
 had underrated the unyielding persistence of British 
 Troops. On the 22d came a telegram, stating that our 
 Army was determined to hold its position, and that, al- 
 though the difficulties were great, the General was sure 
 of ultimate success. 
 
 Next day a wing of the 23d Native Infantry, with 
 some European details, reached Camp. The enemy had 
 already put forth his utmost strength, and the arrival 
 of our fresh troops struck the tribes with an undefined 
 terror. They began to realise what it is to be engaged 
 against the inexhaustible resources of a vast Military 
 Empire, and the next Friday (the day of the week 
 which the Fanatics generally chose for battle) passed 
 without an attack. Still we were unable to advance ; 
 and on the 28th November the Panjab Government in 
 vain recorded a Minute, deploring the stationary attitude 
 of the force, and urging some forward movement. As 
 our reinforcements arrived, fresh tribes poured down 
 from the mountains, one chieftain 1 alone bringing in 
 1 Faiztalal Khan of Bajaur. 
 
STILL IN THE PASS, DECEMBER 1863. 37 
 
 3000 men, and a single ascetic 1 contributing 500 Fanatics 
 determined upon martyrdom or victory. 
 
 On the 5th December our whole reinforcements had 
 arrived, and an advance was again strongly urged. We 
 had now 9000 Regular Troops, including several picked 
 regiments, such as the 93d Highlanders, besides Irregu- 
 lars ; and it seemed hard to believe that a powerful British 
 Army could thus remain cooped within the Pass week 
 after week, harassed by the attacks of the enemy, and 
 unable to strike a blow. But we had altogether under- 
 rated the hold which the Fanatical Colony possessed 
 over the Frontier tribes. Those who joined them for 
 the sake of the Faith burned with the hopes of plunder 
 or of martyrdom, while the less bigoted clans were 
 worked upon by the fear of their territory being invaded 
 by the British or made the seat of the War. The clans- 
 men, fired by zeal and rivalry, scorned all the efforts of 
 a civilised Army, and an eye-witness thus describes the 
 Frontier in the second week of December: — ‘ The excite- 
 ment was spreading far and wide. The Malunands on 
 the Peshdwar border were beginning to make hostile 
 demonstrations at Shabkadr for the first time since their 
 signal defeat near the same place in 1852 by the late 
 Lord Clyde. Rumours were also reaching me from 
 Kohat of expected raids by the Waziris and the Atman - 
 kliail ; emissaries from Cabul and Jellalabad were with 
 the Akhund (the Spiritual Head of the Swdt tribes), who 
 had also been further reinforced by Ghazan Khan, the 
 Chief of Dher, and 6000 men. On the 5th December the 
 Mahmands made a raid into our territory near Shabkadr.’ 2 
 
 But a coalition of mountain tribes is always capri- 
 
 1 The Hajj, or Pilgrim, of Kunhar. 
 
 2 Major James, Commissioner of the Peshawar Division. 
 
3 S THE EXPEDITION RETURNS, DECEMBER 25, 1863. 
 
 cious ; and what our arms had failed to accomplish, dis- 
 sensions and diplomacy began to effect. As early as the 
 2oth November, the Commissioner of Peshawar succeeded 
 in drawing off certain clans of the Bonairs. Another 
 contingent, to the number of 2000, he induced to return 
 to their homes, and persuaded the Swat leader to disperse 
 his immediate followers. Several minor chiefs, scenting 
 the defection, withdrew, leaving the seeds of mutual dis- 
 trust among those who remained. By the 10th Decem- 
 ber this distrust seemed ready to bear fruit. The great 
 council of the Bonair Tribes suddenly came in to the 
 Commissioner, but failed to arrange terms. On the loth 
 we hastened their deliberations by a night attack on 
 Lalu, the enemy losing 400 men. On the 16th we burned 
 the village of Ambeyla, and left 200 of the clansmen dead 
 or wounded on the field. Before nest day the Bonair 
 tribes had made up their minds, and presenting them- 
 selves before the Commissioner, asked for orders. This 
 defection proved the death-blow to the Fanatic cause. 
 Every moment, some clan or another took itself off. The 
 people from Bajaur and Dher fled. The whole of the 
 Swat troops held themselves in instant readiness to 
 desert. The coalition dissolved like a mountain mist, 
 and the Bonair tribes, on whom the Rebel Settlement 
 hid chiefly depended, entered into an engagement with 
 us to burn the Fanatics in their den. In less than a 
 week a strong British brigade, reinforced and guided 
 by the Bonairs, advanced in perfect safety through the 
 mountains to the Fanatical Settlement at Malka, and 
 reduced it to ashes. The force returned to the ill-fated 
 Ambeyla Pass on the 23d December, and on the 2oth 
 the whole Army once more reached the plains, not a shot 
 being fired on its homeward march. 
 
THE FANATICS QUIET, \ 1864-67. 39 
 
 Meanwhile we had left the fatal Defile thickly 
 planted with the graves of British soldiers. Our loss 
 amounted to no less than 847 men killed and wounded, 
 or close on one-tenth of the total strength of the Army 
 when it was eventually raised to 9000 Regular Troops. 
 This was in the Pass alone, and irrespective of men 
 invalided from exposure or who died of disease. The 
 Panjdb Government, in summing up the results of the 
 Campaign, declared that ‘ on no former occasion has the 
 fighting in the hills been of so severe or sustained a 
 character.’ That the Fanatics had effected a formidable 
 combination of tribes, and that in this coalition their 
 Councils had maintained the ascendency. That these 
 fanatics ‘ were no harmless or powerless religionists ; that 
 they are a permanent source of danger to our Rule in 
 India; and that the Religious War which they have so 
 persistently preached might have been adopted by all 
 the. Frontier tribes.’ The peril of the crisis was aug- 
 mented by the fact that just at that time the Indian 
 Empire was without a responsible head. The Viceroy, 
 Lord Elgin, lay in a dying state far in the interior of 
 the hills, cut off from telegraphic communication, and 
 unable to transact business. 
 
 Although the Campaign had cost us dear, it effec- 
 tually quieted the border for the next four years. One 
 half of the Fanatics had fallen, and the adjacent tribes 
 were little inclined to view with favour the remnants of 
 a Rebel Colony which had brought the tempest of War 
 into their mountain valleys. The Traitor Chiefs felt 
 themselves so unsafe, that in 1866 two of them 1 at- 
 tempted to open a communication with our Frontier 
 
 1 Muhammad Ishdk and Muhammad Yakub, through the instrumentality 
 of Sayyid Mahmud, formerly in our service. 
 
40 ANOTHER OUTBREAK IN 1868. 
 
 officers. These efforts were frustrated by a third leader, 1 
 who now began to revive their zeal. Till the end of 
 1867, however, they were too busy with their own 
 quarrels to venture upon depredations on our territory. 
 But in February 1868 they moved out in a column of 
 700 fighting men, and tried to lay the foundation of a 
 coalition of the clans. The remembrance of the punish- 
 ment we had inflicted in 1863 made such an operation 
 now more difficult. Still by degrees the superstitious 
 fanaticism of the tribes began to get the better of their 
 prudence. They attacked one of our outposts in the 
 Agror Valley, and the Government recorded that, but for 
 the immediate measures which we took, we should again 
 have had to deal with a great tribal confederacy. This 
 time, however, the British authorities were determined 
 to lose not a moment. On the 8th September, the 
 Supreme Government sanctioned the despatch of a mili- 
 tary force to reduce the tribes. On the 30th October 
 our troops moved out under the direction of the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief in India, and the immediate command 
 of General "Wilde, C.B. At the same time we issued 
 proclamations to the clans, reciting how certain tribes 
 ‘ who had in no respect been interfered with or oppressed, 
 after attacking a British outpost, entered our territory 
 with arms and flags, burning sundry villages, and render- 
 ing retribution imperative ; ’ ‘ The British Government, 
 which is a long-suffering one, can bear with you no 
 further, and calls you to account for the above acts.’ 
 
 I do not propose to detail the events of this cam- 
 paign. During July, urgent telegraphic messages had 
 come from the Panjab Government giving notice of the 
 storm. ‘ The warning was so urgent,’ wrote the Quarter- 
 
 1 Maulavi Abd-ullah. 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1868. 
 
 4 i 
 
 Master-General of the Army, 1 £ and the call for assistance 
 so imperative, certain detachments of our troops being 
 in fact beleaguered by the insurgents, that the Govern- 
 ment of India lost no time.’ Taught by the disasters 
 of 1863, the Commander-in-Chief, instead of weakening 
 the Panjab Military Stations, or drawing detachments 
 from our posts along the border, brought up regiments 
 from the North-Western Provinces. Besides the operat- 
 ing column, numbering between 6000 and 7000 Regu- 
 lar Troops, the whole force on the Frontier was nearly 
 doubled, and the flower of the British Army in India 
 was concentrated against the fanatical mountain tribes." 
 During the suffocating heat of a tropical August and 
 September, our soldiers were making forced marches 
 such as have seldom been equalled in the healthy tem- 
 perate zone. The Sappers and Miners, for example, 
 covered six hundred miles in twenty-nine days. The 
 troops poured northward from the inland Provinces in 
 such bewildering masses as to completely overawe the 
 clans, and to baffle the Fanatics’ plan for a tribal coali- 
 tion. At an enormous cost we placed an Army with 
 Artillery complete on the Black Mountain, but the bor- 
 
 1 Letter to Secretary to Government, Military Department, No. 163, dated 
 5 tli November 1868, para. 4. 
 
 2 The D Battery F Brigade Royal Artillery, the E Battery 19th Brigade 
 R.A., and the 2-24th Brigade R.A. ; the 1st Battalions of the 6th and 19th 
 Foot; 2 Companies of the 77th ; the 16th Bengal Cavalry, the 2d Gurkha 
 Regiment ; and the 24th Native Infantry, -were at once transferred from Rawal 
 Pindf to Abbottabad, the Headquarters of the Hazara District. The 20th N.I. 
 were marched from Labor to Abbottabad ; the 38th Foot from Sialkot to Dar- 
 band in Hazara, which was also occupied by the 31st N.I. during the Cam- 
 paign. The 1st and 4th Gurkhds were moved from the distant hill stations of 
 Bakloli and Dliarmsala, and joined the force under General Wilde. In addi- 
 tion to the above, the 30th, 19th, and 23d N.I., the 9th Bengal Cavalry, and 
 the 20th Hussars, were marched from their several stations of Cawnpur, Ali- 
 garh, Amritsar, Lahor, and Campbellpur, to Rawal Pindi, and formed the 
 reserve. Troops were also held in readiness at Peshawar and Nausliira to sup- 
 port the Guide Corps at Hot Mardan, opposite the Swat country. 
 
42 PROBABILITY OF A NO THE R AFGHAN WAR. 
 
 derers did not dare to face it. ‘ The spectacle has been 
 seen,’ wrote the Quarter- Master- General, ‘of British 
 troops, European and Native, operating over and among 
 mountains 10,000 feet high, the General in command him- 
 self being without a tent.’ 1 Nevertheless we failed to 
 reach the heart of the evil. It is doubtful how far re- 
 ligion was directly and immediately responsible for the 
 rising. But the Panjab Government, in summing up the 
 results of the Campaign, recorded its regret that it ‘ had 
 come to a close without our having been able either 
 to drive out the Hindustani fanatics, or to induce them 
 to surrender and to return to their homes in Hindustan.’ 2 
 I have now traced the history of the Rebel Camp 
 on our Frontier from its formation in 1831 to the last 
 Campaign in which it involved us in 1868. To trace 
 the Wahabi warlike ramifications throughout India, would 
 swell this little book to a great volume. But they were 
 by no means confined to the Panjab. For example, about 
 thirty years ago, it seemed as if a Fanatic Confederacy 
 had firmly established itself in the heart of Southern 
 India. Sir Bartle Frere informs me that the Wahabi 
 organisation of that day included a brother of the Nizam, 
 who was to have been raised to the Haidrabad throne ; 
 and had the plan not broken through, the leaders would 
 have had a great store of newly cast cannon and muni- 
 tions of all sorts, with a formidable body of adherents, 
 both among the semi-independent native Chiefs, and in 
 the Military Courts of the South. The chronic miseries 
 
 1 Letter from Quarter-Master-General to Secretary to Government, Military 
 Department, No. 163, dated 5th November 1868, para. 17. 
 
 2 Para. 22 of Panjab Government’s Letter, No. 258, dated 6 th November 
 1868. In the above brief account of the Frontier Expedition of 1868, I have 
 followed this letter and the reports from the local officers alluded to in it ; 
 with the Quarter-Master-Geueral’s letter of the 5th November 1868, and the 
 Reports appended, for the military details. 
 
MATERIALS FOR A REBELLION. 
 
 43 
 
 which it rained down upon the border under the 
 Sikh Rule, have been transmitted as a bitter legacy to 
 ourselves. Besides constantly keeping alive a fanatical 
 spirit of unrest along the Frontier, it has three times 
 organised great tribal confederacies, each of which has 
 cost British India a war. One Government after another 
 has declared it to be a source of permanent danger to our 
 Rule, yet all our efforts to extirpate it have failed. It 
 still continues the centre towards which the hopes alike 
 of our disloyal subjects and of our enemies beyond the 
 Frontier turn. We know not at what moment we may 
 again get involved in the dynastic struggles which con- 
 stantly afflict Central Asia, but at present it seems quite 
 possible that before this year ends we shall find ourselves 
 in another Afghan War. When such a war arrives — and 
 sooner or later it must come to pass — the Rebel Colony 
 on our borders will be worth to the enemy many thousands 
 of men. It is not the traitors themselves whom we have 
 to fear, but the seditious masses in the heart of our 
 Empire, and the superstitious tribes on our Frontier, 
 both of whom the Fanatics have again and again com- 
 bined in a Religious War against us. During nine 
 centuries the Indian people have been accustomed to 
 look for invasion from the north ; and no one can predict 
 the proportions to which this Rebel Camp, backed by the 
 Musalman hordes from the Westward, might attain, 
 under a leader who knew how to weld together the 
 nations of Asia in a Crescentade. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CHRONIC CONSPIRACY WITHIN OUR TERRITORY. 
 
 HP HE source from which the Frontier Rebel Camp de- 
 rived this extraordinary vitality long remained a 
 mystery. Thrice it was scattered by the Native Power 
 which preceded us in the Panjdb, and thrice it has been 
 crushed beneath masses of British Troops. Yet it still 
 lives on, and the devout Musalmdns find in this almost 
 miraculous indestructibility a visible augury of ultimate 
 triumph. The truth is, that while we have been trying 
 to stamp out the Frontier Settlement beneath the heel of 
 a military force, the fanatical sects among our Muham- 
 madan subjects have been feeding it with an inexhaustible 
 supply of money and men ; pouring oil upon the embers 
 which we had left for dead, and nursing them again into 
 a flame. 
 
 The preaching of Sayyid Ahmad in 1820-22 passed 
 unheeded by the British Authorities. He traversed our 
 Provinces with a retinue of devoted disciples, converted 
 the populace by thousands to his doctrine, and estab- 
 lished a regular system of Ecclesiastical Taxation, Civil 
 Government, and Apostolic Succession. Meanwhile our 
 officers collected the revenue, administered justice, and 
 paraded our troops, altogether unsuspicious of the great 
 religious movement which was surging around them. 
 From this unconsciousness they were in 1831 rudely 
 
NARRATIVE OF TITU MI VAN, 1820 - 30 . 
 
 45 
 
 awakened. Among the disciples of the Prophet in Cal- 
 cutta, was a certain professional wrestler and bully, by 
 name Titu Miyan. 1 This man had started life as the son 
 of a respectable husbandman, and bettered his position 
 by marrying into the family of a small landholder. But 
 his violent and turbulent disposition threw away these 
 advantages. For some time he earned an ignominious 
 livelihood as a boxer in Calcutta, and afterwards enlisted 
 in one of the bands of club-men with which the country 
 gentlemen of Bengal were at that time wont to adjust 
 their family differences and boundary disputes. This 
 occupation finally landed him in jail. After his release 
 he made a pilgrimage to Mecca, met Sayyid Ahmad in 
 the Holy City, and returned to India a powerful preacher 
 of the faith. He itinerated in the Districts north and 
 east of Calcutta, making multitudes of converts, and pre- 
 paring in secret God’s vengeance against the Infidel. The 
 Capture of Peshawar in 1830 by the Fanatic Host em- 
 boldened Titu Miyan to throw off all disguise ; and the 
 petty oppressions 2 to which the Hindu landholders sub- 
 jected his followers, placed him at the head of an infu- 
 riated peasant rising. 
 
 A series of agrarian outrages followed, ending in the 
 insurgents entrenching themselves in a fortified Camp, 
 and defying and beating back the English Authorities 
 with some slaughter. The whole of the country north 
 and east of Calcutta, including three entire Districts, 3 lay 
 
 1 Alias Nisar Ali, a native of Chandpur Village, and resident in Barasat. 
 His career is given at some length in the Calcutta Review , vol. ci., which I 
 have nsed along with an Official Memorandum by the Patna Magistrate. 
 
 2 For example, Krishna Chandra Rai, a large landholder on the banks of the 
 Ichhamati, levied a capitation tax of five shillings on each of his peasants who 
 had embraced the new faith. Another proprietor threw one of his peasants 
 into his private prison for destroying a shrine during the Muharram. 
 
 3 The 24 Parganas, Naddea, and Faridpur. 
 
46 PEASANT RISING NEAR CALCUTTA , 1831. 
 
 at the mercy of insurgent bands between three and four 
 thousand strong. The sectaries began by sacking a vil- 
 lage in open daylight, because one of the inhabitants re- 
 fused to accept their divine mission. 1 In another District 
 a second village 2 was plundered, and a mosque burnt 
 down. Meanwhile contributions of money and rice were 
 levied from the Faithful ; and on the 23d October 1831, 
 the insurgents picked out a strongly situated village for 
 their Headquarters, and erected a bamboo stockade round 
 it. On the 6th November they marched out to the 
 number of 500 fighting men, attacked a small town, 
 and after murdering the priest, slaughtered two cows 
 (the sacred animals of the Hindus), with whose blood 
 they defiled a Hindu temple, and whose carcases they 
 scoffingly hung up before the idol. They then proclaimed 
 the extinction of the English Rule, and the re-establish- 
 ment of the Muhammadan Power. Incessant outrages 
 followed, the general proceeding being to kill a cow in 
 a Hindu village, and, if the people resisted, to murder 
 or expel the inhabitants, plunder their houses, and burn 
 them down. They were equally bitter, however, against 
 any Muhammadan who would not join their sect, and on 
 one occasion, in sacking the house of a wealthy and ob- 
 durate Musalman, varied the proceedings by forcibly 
 marrying his daughter to the head of their band. 
 
 After some ineffectual efforts by the District Autho- 
 rities, a detachment of the Calcutta Militia was sent out 
 on the 14th November 1831 against the rebels. The 
 fanatics, however, refused all parley, and the officer in 
 command, being anxious to save bloodshed, ordered his 
 men to load with blank cartridge. The insurgents poured 
 out upon us, received a harmless volley, and instantly 
 
 1 Iu Faridpur District. 2 At Sarfardzpiir, in Xaddea. 
 
APOTHEOSIS OF THE PROPHET, 1831 . 47 
 
 cut our soldiers to pieces. All this took place within 
 a couple of hours’ ride from Calcutta. O 11 the 17th 
 the Magistrate got together some reinforcements, the 
 Europeans being mounted on elephants. But the in- 
 surgents met them, drawn up in battle array a thousand 
 strong, and chased the party to its boats on the river 
 cutting down those who were slowest in the retreat. It 
 now became necessary to deal with the rebels by means 
 of Regular troops. A body of Native Infantry, with some 
 Horse Artillery, and a detachment from the Body Guard, 
 hurried out from Calcutta. The insurgents, disdaining 
 the safety of their stockade, met the troops upon the 
 open plain, ‘with the mangled remains of a European, 
 who had been killed the previous day, suspended in front 
 of their line.’ A stubborn engagement decided their fate. 
 They were driven back pell-mell into their entrenchment, 
 and the fortified camp was taken by storm. Titu Miyan, 
 the leader, fell in the action. Of the survivors (350 in 
 number), 140 were sentenced by the Court to various 
 terms of imprisonment ; and one of them, Titu’s lieutenant, 
 was condemned to death. 
 
 The end of the Reformers seemed to have come. On 
 the Panjab Frontier their forces had been scattered and 
 their leader slain. The insurrection in Lower Bengal had 
 met with a similar fate. But the Khali fs, or Apostolic 
 Successors, whom the Prophet had appointed at Patna, 
 came to the rescue. They produced ej^e-witnesses, who 
 declared that in the thick of the battle the Prophet had 
 been snatched away from mortal sight in a cloud of dust. 
 They assured the multitude that he had himself foretold 
 his disappearance. The Prophet had indeed prayed that 
 his grave might be hidden from his disciples, like that of 
 Moses of old, so that no impious worship might be paid to 
 
4 8 THE MO VEMENT RE VIVED, 1832. 
 
 his bones. They preached that the Almighty had with- 
 drawn him from a faint-hearted generation ; but that 
 when the Indian Musalmans, with singleness of mind, 
 should join in a Holy War against the English Infidels, 
 their Prophet would return and lead them to victory. 
 In all this there was nothing incredible to a Musalman. 
 4 Such things had happened before. It was well known 
 that the Prophet Tunis (Jonah) had disappeared for a 
 time, and lay concealed in the belly of a large fish. 
 Moses, too, became invisible when he ascended Mount 
 Sinai to receive the Old Testament. Zulkarnain, the 
 great leader who imprisoned Gog and Magog, disappeared 
 under similar circumstances. The Prophet Christ had 
 not tasted of death.’ 1 It was therefore incumbent on 
 the Faithful to re-enter on the Holy War with fresh 
 vigour ; and the Khalifs at Patna appointed a new Gene- 
 ral of the Faith, 2 who moved northwards with an ever- 
 growing retinue of fanatic swordsmen. 
 
 For a time the well-attested miracle of the Prophet’s 
 Apotheosis overawed inquiry, and all went well. One of 
 the most devoted of the Lower Bengal missionaries, who 
 had preached 4 throughout the Eastern Districts, particu- 
 larly in Dacca and Sylhet,’ marched northwards 1800 
 miles to the Frontier with a thousand men. But the 
 protracted absence of the Prophet greatly exercised his 
 faith, and after a short campaign he resolved to penetrate 
 to the distant mountain-cave in which the Lord had hid- 
 den his Apostle. His zeal for the truth surmounted the 
 watchful jealousy of the more interested party leaders ; 
 and having reached the hill sanctuaiy, he found in it 
 4 only three figures stuffed with straw.’ The dis-illusioned 
 missionary fled from the accursed den, commanded his 
 
 1 Calcutta Preview, vol. ci. p. 1 ST. 2 Maulavi' Xasr-ud-din. 
 
BUT A GAIN APPEARS R UINED. 
 
 49 
 
 followers to return to their homes, and indited a long in- 
 dignant letter to his converts in Calcutta, who still kept 
 forwarding money and men. 
 
 1 Saldm 'alaikum,' he wrote, ‘the peace and blessing 
 of God be upon you. Mulla Kadir prepared an image of 
 the Prophet, but before showing it to any person he 
 made the people promise that they would never attempt 
 to shake hands with the Prophet or speak to him ; for if 
 they did, then the Prophet would disappear for fourteen 
 years. The whole people, deeply affected, viewed this 
 lifeless image from some distance, and made obeisance to 
 it. But to all their supplications never an answer came, 
 and the people grew desirous of shaking hands with their 
 Prophet. Then Mulla Kadir tried to allay their suspi- 
 cions, and said that if any one should attempt to shake 
 hands with the Prophet without giving previous notice, 
 the Prophet’s servant would pistol him.’ The letter goes 
 on to relate how the astute Mulla reproached the people 
 with their want of faith ; how the image was removed 
 from public view ; and finally, how, ‘ after a great deal 
 of entreaty, they obtained an inspection of it. They exa- 
 mined it, and found that it was a goat’s skin stuffed with 
 grass, which, with the help of some pieces of wood and 
 hair, was made to resemble a man. Your slave inquired 
 of the priest about this. He answered that it was true, 
 but that the Prophet had performed a miracle and ap- 
 peared as a stuffed figure to the people. The errors and 
 falsity of these impostors are now as clear as noonday, 
 and I have saved my soul from sin.’ 
 
 Again the fanatic cause seemed ruined. But the 
 missionary zeal of the Patna Khalffs, and the immense 
 pecuniary resources at their command, once more raised 
 the sacred banner from the dust. They covered India 
 
 D 
 
5 ° 
 
 ITS MISSIONAR Y SYSTEM. 
 
 with their emissaries, and brought about one of the 
 greatest religious revivals that has ever taken place. 
 The two Khalifs 1 themselves went through Bengal and 
 Southern India. The minor missionaries were innumer- 
 able, and a skilful organisation enabled them to settle 
 in any place where the multitude of converts made it 
 worth their while. In this way, almost every one of the 
 fanatic Districts had its permanent preacher, whose zeal 
 was sharpened from time to time by visits of the itinerant 
 missionaries, and whose influence was consolidated and 
 rendered permanent by the Central Propaganda at Patna. 
 IIow great a power for evil these preachers have now 
 become in Bengal, I shall afterwards show. In Southern 
 India they raised such a hurricane of enthusiasm, that 
 even the women cast their jewels into the common 
 purse. From the North-West Provinces they sent com- 
 pany after company of recruits to the Fanatic Camp. 
 Everywhere they stirred the Muhammadan population 
 to its depths ; and although the keen intellect of the 
 Bengali eventually gave its present tone to the move- 
 ment, the revival burst forth with equal heat for a time 
 in all the Provinces of India. ‘ They have,’ wrote the 
 Magistrate of Patna, ‘ under the very nose and protec- 
 tion of Government authorities, openly preached sedition 
 in every village of our most populous districts, un- 
 settling the minds of the Musalmdn population, and 
 
 1 Wildyat All' and I nay at Ah'. The former, after a missionary tour through 
 Bengal, took Bombay, the Niz&mat, and Central India as his special field. 
 Indy at concentrated his efforts on the Middle Districts of the Lower Provinces, 
 Malda, Bogra, Rdjshdhi, Patna, Naddea, and Faridpur. Karim at Alt of Jaun- 
 pur carried the movement eastwards from Faridpur into Dacca, Maimansingh, 
 Noakliali, and Barisal. Zain-ul-’Abidm, a native of Haidribad, who had been 
 converted by Wildyat Ah' on his tour through Southern India, selected North- 
 eastern Bengal as the sphere of his labours, and converted the peasantry of N. 
 Tipperah and Sylhet . — Calcutta Review , vols. c. and ci. 
 
THE PROPHETS RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES. 51 
 
 obtaining an influence for evil as extraordinary as it is 
 certain.’ 1 
 
 The origin of this wonderful influence was, however, 
 by no means based on unmixed evil. Sayyid Ahmad com- 
 menced his apostolic career by re-asserting the two great 
 principles with which all true preachers have worked — 
 the unity of God and the equality of man. He appealed 
 with an almost inspired confidence to the religious instinct, 
 long dormant in the sonls of his countrymen, and over- 
 grown by the superstitious accretions with which centuries 
 of contact with Hinduism had almost stifled Islam. He 
 found the True Faith buried beneath the ceremonial of 
 idolatry. Bandit as he had been, impostor as he or his 
 immediate disciples became, I cannot help the conviction 
 that there was an intermediate time in Sayyid Ahmad’s 
 life when his whole soul yearned with a great pain for 
 the salvation of his countrymen, and when his heart 
 turned singly to God. A man of an intensely nervous 
 temperament, concealed under an outward show of calm, 
 he fell into religious trances which to Western science 
 would simply suggest epilepsy, but which the popular 
 belief of Asia reverences as a state of direct communion 
 with the Almighty. In unearthly ecstasies the Prophets 
 of bygone ages flitted before his inner vision, and he held 
 a constant mystic intercourse with the long-dead founders 
 of the two great Religious Orders of India. In 1820, 
 when he started on his mission, he was about thirty-four 
 years old, a little above the middle height, and with a 
 long beard falling on his breast. Of a taciturn, gentle 
 manner, unlearned in the law, he preached on the practi- 
 cal life of his countrymen, and abstained from all doctrinal 
 discussions ; either, as his enemies said, because he was 
 
 1 Official Proceedings, 1865. 
 
5 2 
 
 HIS DIVINE TITLE. 
 
 unfit to handle them ; or, as his disciples affirmed, because 
 they were below his high order of piety. Two of his 
 first converts were men of profound scholarship, brought 
 up at the feet of the Dehli sage, ‘The Sun of India,' under 
 whom the Prophet also passed his noviciate. 
 
 These two men 1 belonged to the family of the greatest 
 Muhammadan Doctor of the age, and had been carefully 
 trained by him alike in the sacred language and in the 
 Sacred Law. Both of them were imbued, although in 
 different degrees, with the necessity of a reformation of 
 the faith and manners of their countrymen ; and both 
 simultaneously accepted their illiterate co-disciple, the 
 late bandit, as a man sent by God to accomplish the 
 work. The veneration with which these learned and 
 polished doctors of the law publicly treated the ignorant 
 horse-soldier, with his late-learned smattering of -Arabic, 
 first attracted popular attention to the future Prophet. 
 Their profound acquaintance with the patristic literature 
 of Islam enabled them publicly to support the Sayyid’s 
 title, which they themselves had acknowledged. Starting 
 with the popular belief that God from time to time sends 
 Imams, or leaders, to quicken the faith of His children, 
 and to guide the masses of mankind to salvation, they 
 proved that Sayyid Ahmad had all the marks of such a 
 divinely commissioned envoy. He was, in the first place, 
 lineally descended in the orthodox line from Muhammad 
 himself. In his fits of religious ecstasy, during which he 
 communed with God and the Apostles ; in his grave, 
 taciturn, and gentle demeanour ; even in his person, they 
 declared him to resemble the great Prophet. Of the 
 twelve Khalifs who will reduce the world to the True 
 
 1 Maulavi Muhammad Ismd'fl, the nephew, and Maulavf Abd-ul-haf, the 
 son-in-law, of Shah Abd-ul-aziz. 
 
HIS CONFESSION OF FAITH. 
 
 53 
 
 Faith, some of the Indian Muhammadans 1 believe that 
 six have already come and gone, while others only admit 
 four. Sayyid Ahmad was the next in the sacred line. In 
 dreams, the beloved daughter of Muhammad and her 
 husband (his lineal ancestors) visited him, saluted him as 
 their son, bathed him in sweet essences, and arrayed him 
 in royal apparel. What further evidence could the popu- 
 lace, or indeed even Sayyid Ahmad himself, demand ? Ilis 
 own humility and scruples disappeared before the incessant 
 arguments of his two learned disciples. So firmly did he 
 at length believe in his title, that at the peril of his life 
 he assumed all the functions of sovereigntj^, levied tithes, 
 appointed Khalifs to continue the Apostolic Succession, 
 and formally proclaimed himself at Peshawar the Com- 
 mander of the Faithful. 
 
 Until his pilgrimage to Mecca, however, he does not 
 appear to have reduced his doctrines to any formulated 
 system. Ilis idea of a reformation of religion was a purely 
 practical one. He told his hearers, that if they were to 
 escape divine wrath, they must live better lives. One of 
 his disciples has recorded his sayings in a book , 2 now the 
 Kuran of the sect ; in which, however, the brief utterances 
 of the Prophet are believed to have been greatly amplified 
 by the piety of the writer. But even when thus amplified, 
 his teaching seems to have been almost entirely one of 
 practical morality. In the Deeds by which he appointed 
 the Patna Khalifs, the same spirit of the religion of daily 
 life shines out. His single doctrine was to worship God 
 alone, and God direct, without the interposition of 
 humanly devised forms and ceremonies. 
 
 1 The Sunnis. The Shiahs hold that eleven have already passed away, and 
 that the twelfth is hidden somewhere beyond our North-Western Frontier. 
 But the Sunnis form 95 per cent, of the Indian Musalmans. 
 
 2 The Sirat-ul-Mustakhn, by Muhammad Isma il. 
 
54 
 
 HIS CONFESSION OF FAITH. 
 
 1 In the name of the merciful God ! Be it known 
 to those who seek the way of God in general, and to 
 those in particular, whether present or absent, who are 
 the friends of Sayyid Ahmad, that the object of such as 
 become disciples of holy men by the ceremony of joining 
 hands is to secure the means of pleasing God, and depends 
 on fulfilling the law of his Prophet. 
 
 ‘ The law of the Prophet is founded on two things : 
 First, the not attributing to any creature the attribute of 
 God ; 1 and second, not inventing forms and practices 2 
 which were not invented in the days of the Prophet, and 
 his successors or Khalifs. The first consists in dis- 
 believing that angels, spirits, spiritual guides, disciples, 
 teachers, students, prophets or saints, remove one’s diffi- 
 culties. In abstaining from having recourse to any of the 
 above creations for the attainment of any wish or desire. 
 In denying that any of them has the power of granting 
 favour or removing evils ; in considering them as helpless 
 and ignorant as one’s self in respect to the power of God. 
 In never making any offering to any prophet, saint, holy 
 man, or angel for the obtaining of any object, but merely 
 to consider them as the friends of God. To believe that 
 they have power to rule the accidents of life, and that 
 they are acquainted with the secret knowledge of God, is 
 downright infidelity . 3 
 
 ‘ With regard to the second point, true and undefiled 
 religion consists in strongly adhering to all the devotions 
 and practices in the affairs of life which were observed in 
 the time of the Prophet. In avoiding all such innovations 
 as marriage ceremonies, mourning ceremonies, adorning 
 of tombs, erection of large edifices over graves, lavish 
 expenditure on the anniversaries of the dead, street pro- 
 
 1 Shirk. 
 
 2 Bid’at. 
 
 3 Kufr. 
 
JUS TOR Y OR THE WAHABIS IN ARABIA. 
 
 55 
 
 cessions and the like, and in endeavouring as far as may 
 be practicable to put a stop to these practices.’ 1 
 
 The Prophet’s visit to Mecca in 1822-23 amplified 
 and formulated this simple system of puritanic belief. 
 He found the Holy City just emerged from a Reformation 
 devised by a Bedouin of the desert, and similar in prin- 
 ciples to his own. Its founder had erected a great 
 religious empire in Western Asia, closely resembling that 
 which Sayyid Ahmad hoped to establish in India. It 
 becomes necessary, therefore, to break the narrative of 
 the further development of his creed, by a brief account 
 of the rise and progress of the Wahabis in Arabia. 
 
 About a hundred and fifty years ago, a young Arab 
 pilgrim, by name Abd-ul-Wahhab, 2 the son of a petty Nejd 
 chief, was deeply struck with the profligacy of his fellow- 
 pilgrims, and with the endless mummeries which profaned 
 the Holy Cities. For three years he pondered over the 
 corruptions of Muhammadanism in Damascus, and then 
 stepped forth as their denouncer. Pie rendered himself 
 peculiarly hateful to the creatures of the Constantinople 
 Court, accusing the Turkish Doctors of making the 
 written word of no effect by their traditions ( Sunned ), 
 and the Turkish people of being worse than the Infidels 
 by reason of their vices. Driven from city to city, he 
 at length took refuge with the chief of Derai’yeh, Mu- 
 hammad Ibn Sa’rid, into whom he instilled his religious 
 views and a sense of his great wrongs. These wrongs he 
 was soon amply to redress. With the aid of his new con- 
 vert, who married his daughter, he formed a small Arab 
 League, and raised the standard of revolt against the 
 Government of Constantinople, and of protest against her 
 
 1 Calcutta Review , No. c. p. 89. 
 
 2 ‘ The Servant of Him who gives everything.’ 
 
56 THEY CONQUER ARABIA , 1750 - 1800 . 
 
 corrupted creed. Victory crowded upon victory. The 
 Bedouins, who had never adored Muhammad as quite a 
 divine person, nor accepted the Ivuran as an altogether 
 inspired book, flocked to the Army of the Reformation. 
 The greater part of Nejd was conquered, Abd-ul-W ahh&b 
 being the spiritual chief, while Muhammad Ibn Sa’iid, 
 his son-in-law, ruled as its temporal monarch. They 
 appointed governors for the vanquished provinces, and 
 kept them in strict subjection. A great Assembly of the 
 Sa’iid Tribe formed the Ministry for legislative and re- 
 ligious affairs during time of peace, and the Council of 
 War during campaigns. 
 
 Before long the new Kingdom boldly attacked the 
 Turkish power. In 1748 the Pasha of Bagd&d, formerly 
 Grand Vizier, had to take active measures against the 
 movement, — a movement which would in the end have 
 thrust out the degenerate successors of the Khallfs from 
 the Porte, and constructed a new Muhammadan Empire. 
 Nor were the Reformers less skilful in civil government 
 than they had been victorious in arms. They bound to- 
 gether the Nomad Arabs, on whom their power chiefly 
 depended, in a firm confederation. A regular system of 
 religious taxation was devised. In time of war, four-fifths 
 of the spoil went to soldiers, and one-fifth to the Royal 
 Treasury. The Land-tax, termed Alms in the Kuran, 
 was strictly enforced ; fields watered naturally by rain or 
 rivers paying one-tenth of the yearly produce, while land 
 which required artificial irrigation paid one-twentieth. 
 Traders of all sorts paid one and a half per cent, of their 
 capital. Rebellious or schismatic cities and Provinces 
 also yielded a steady source of Revenue. The punishment 
 for a first defection was general plunder, one-fifth of which 
 went to the treasury. In case of a second rebellion or 
 
THEIR RELIGIOUS REFORMATION. 57 
 
 apostasy, the whole land on which the town was built, 
 with the territory immediately subject to it, became the 
 property of the Wahabi chief. As the Reformers were 
 essentially a sect militant, and boldly announced the 
 doctrine of conversion by the sword, this proved a valu- 
 able source of revenue, and was enforced by two or three 
 campaigns every year. 
 
 The doctrines which they thus engraved in blood 
 were themselves of a noble type. They insisted first of 
 all upon a practical amendment of morals. The Turks 
 had infected the Holy City itself with their low sensuality. 
 Not content with polygamy, they had brought women of 
 the vilest character with them in their pilgrim trains, 
 and were addicted to practices of an even more filthy 
 nature among themselves, — practices solemnly forbidden 
 by the Kuran. Wine and opium they had openly used 
 in the Holy Streets, and the Turkish caravan to Mecca 
 exhibited a scene of the most abominable debauchery. 
 It was against these practical and visible defilements that 
 Abd-ul-Wahhab first raised his voice. But by degrees his 
 views grew into a theological system which has been 
 handed down under the name of Wahabi-ism, 1 and which 
 is now substantially the belief of the Indian sect. It is a 
 system which reduces the religion of Muhammad to a 
 pure Theism, and consists of seven great doctrines. First, 
 absolute reliance upon One God. Second, absolute re- 
 nunciation of any mediatory agent between man and his 
 Maker, including the rejection of the prayers of the saints, 
 and even of the semi-divine mediation of Muhammad 
 himself. Third, the right of private interpretation of the 
 Muhammadan Scriptures, and the rejection of all priestly 
 
 1 In Arabic, Wahabi is spelt Wahhabi, but it lias now become an Anglo- 
 Indian word. I accent the middle syllable to show that it is long. 
 
53 
 
 THEY CAPTURE MECCA, 1 S 03 . 
 
 glosses on the Holy Writ. Fourth, absolute rejection of 
 all the forms, ceremonies, and outward observances with 
 which the mediaeval and modern Muhammadans have 
 overlaid the pure Faith. Fifth, constant looking for the 
 Prophet (Imam), who will lead the True Believers to 
 victory over the Infidels. Sixth, constant recognition 
 both in theory and practice of the obligation to wage war 
 upon all Infidels. Seventh, implicit obedience to the 
 spiritual guide. The Wahabis form, in fact, an advanced 
 division of the Sunnis — the Puritans of Islam. The Sunnis 
 are the sect to which almost all the Muhammadans of 
 Bengal and the North-Western Provinces belong. 1 
 
 Abd-ul-Wahhab died in 1787, but bequeathed his 
 conquests to a worthy successor. In 1791 the Wahabis 
 made a successful campaign against the grand Sheikh of 
 Mecca. In 1797 they beat back the Pasha of Bagdad 
 with immense slaughter, and overran the most fertile 
 Provinces of Asiatic Turkey. In 1801 they again swept 
 down upon Mecca with more than a hundred thousand 
 men, and in 1803 the Holy City fell into their hands. 
 Next year they captured Medina. In these two strong- 
 holds of Islam, the Reformers massacred the inhabitants 
 who refused to accept their creed, plundered and defiled 
 the tombs of the Muhammadan saints, and spared not 
 even the Sacred Mosque itself. During eleven centuries 
 every devout King and Emperor of Islam had sent thither 
 
 1 They are chiefly Sunnis of the Hanafi persuasion, with, however, a few 
 Shafi’is. The Hanafis follow the order of their great Imam, Abu Ilam'fa ; born 
 about 80 A.H. (099 a.d.) ; died about 115 a.h. (733 A.D.). They pray five times 
 daily, and during prayer keep their hands crossed over the navel, bending the 
 body forward, but not raising the hands above the head. After prayer they 
 utter the word Amen in silence. The ShafiTs also take their name from their 
 Imam, Abu Abd-ullah Shafi’ ; born about 150 a.h. (707 a.d) ; died about 201 
 a.h. (819-820 a.d.). They cross the hands over the breast at prayer, raise 
 them above the head when they bow, and at the end utter Amen aloud. 
 
FALL OF THELR EMPIRE , 1813. 
 
 59 
 
 the richest oblations which his realm could yield, and the 
 accumulated offerings of the world’s piety were now swept 
 into the tents of the sectaries of the desert. 
 
 The consternation of the Muhammadan world can only 
 be compared to the thrill which passed through Christen- 
 dom, when it was told that Bourbon’s banditti had 
 bivouacked in the A r atican, and that the Vicar of Christ 
 was a prisoner in Sant’ Angelo. The highest temple of 
 the Musalman faith was not only pillaged, but grossly 
 polluted by armed schismatics ; the Prophet’s own tomb 
 was mutilated ; and the path of pilgrimage, the Musal- 
 man’s avenue to salvation, was closed. From the marble 
 pile of Saint Sophia in Constantinople, to the plastered 
 wayside mosque on the frontier of China, every Muham- 
 madan house of prayer was fdled with lamentation and 
 weeping. A few of the Shiahs declared it was the Twelfth 
 Imam made manifest; but to the orthodox believer it 
 seemed clear that Ad-Dajjal, the lying Prophet foretold by 
 Muhammad, had now descended on the earth, and that 
 the end was come. 
 
 Spite of fasting and supplication, from 1803 to 1809 
 no great pilgrim caravan crossed the desert. The Wahabis 
 overran Syria, sustained a War with the British in the 
 Persian Gulf, and threatened Constantinople itself. It 
 was Mehemet Ali, Pasha of Egypt, who at last succeeded 
 in crushing the Reformation. In 1812, Thomas Keith, a 
 Scotchman, under the Pasha’s son, took Medina by storm. 
 Mecca fell in 1813 ; and five years later, this vast power, 
 which had so miraculously sprung up, as miraculously 
 vanished, like a shifting sand mountain of the desert. 
 
 The Wahabis, now a scattered and a homeless sect, 
 profess doctrines hateful to the well-to-do classes of 
 Muhammadans. In formal divinity they are the Unita- 
 
6o 
 
 SECRET OF THEIR POWER. 
 
 rians of Islam. They refuse divine attributes to Muham- 
 mad, forbid prayers in his name, and denounce supplica- 
 tions to departed saints. It is their earnest, practical 
 morality, however, that contains the secret of their 
 strength. They boldly insist upon a return to the faith 
 of the primitive Muhammadan Church, to its simplicity 
 of manners, its purity of life, and its determination to 
 spread the Truth, at whatever expense of the blood of 
 the Infidel, and at whatever sacrifice of themselves. 
 Their two great principles are the unity of God and the 
 abnegation of self. They disdain the compromises by 
 which the rude fanaticism of Muhammad has been skil- 
 fully worked up into a system of civil polity, and adapted 
 alike to the internal wants and foreign relations of Musal- 
 man States. They exact from every convert that absolute 
 resignation (isldm) to the will of God which is the clue 
 to the success of Muhammad. But wdiile, like other 
 reforming sects, they ceaselessly insist on this funda- 
 mental doctrine, they weaken their cause among the 
 learned by their Unitarian divinity, and among the simple 
 by a rude disregard of established rites and hallowed 
 associations. In the greater part of Asia, the Wahabi 
 convert must separate himself from the whole believing 
 world. He must give up his most cherished legends, his 
 most solemn festivals, his holiest beliefs. He must even 
 discontinue the comforting practice of praying at his 
 father’s tomb . 1 
 
 The Wahabis of India, however, appeal to a principle 
 in the Muhammadan heart, whose intensity makes light 
 of all these difficulties. While at Mecca, Sayyid Ahmad 
 attracted the notice of the authorities by the similarity of 
 
 1 Here and further on I have followed an article which I put forth in the 
 Indian Daily News in 1S64. 
 
THE INDIAN WAHABIS. 
 
 61 
 
 his teaching to that of the Bedouin Sectaries, from whom 
 the Holy City had lately suffered so much. The priests 
 publicly degraded him, and expelled him from the town. 
 As a natural result of this persecution, he returned to 
 India no longer a religious visionary and reformer of 
 idolatrous abuses, but a fanatical disciple of Abd-ul- 
 Wahhdb. Whatever had been dreamy in his nature now 
 gave place to a fiery ecstasy, in which he beheld himself 
 planting the Crescent throughout every district of India, 
 and the Cross buried beneath the carcases of the English 
 Infidels. Whatever had been indistinct in his teaching, 
 henceforth assumed the precision of that fierce, formu- 
 lated theology, by which Abd-ul- W ahhdb had founded a 
 great Kingdom in Arabia, and which Sayyid Ahmad 
 hoped would enable him to rear a still greater and more 
 lasting Empire in India. 
 
 The internal change that took place in the Prophet’s 
 heart is known only to himself and to God, but it is cer- 
 tain that his whole outward conduct altered. He no 
 longer looked upon making converts as his work in life, 
 but only as a preliminary process to his entering on that 
 work. At Bombay, where he first landed, not even the 
 multitudes who flocked to his preaching, and begged for 
 the initiatory rite, could delay him. Wherever he went, 
 his success was even greater than before his visit to 
 Mecca ; but he seemed to view preaching in the settled 
 Districts with a certain disdainful impatience, and to 
 keep his eye constantly fixed upon the distant warlike 
 populations of the Frontier. His subsequent career has 
 been sufficiently described in the foregoing chapter. It 
 remains briefly to explain the doctrinal system which his 
 followers have evolved from his teaching; a system by 
 which they effected one of the greatest religious revivals 
 
62 THEIR DIVINELY-SENT LEADER. 
 
 known to Indian history, and which has kept alive the 
 spirit of revolt against the British Buie during fifty years. 
 
 The first difficulty that confronted the Indian Wa- 
 habis was the disappearance of their leader. His death 
 had disappointed the hopes of his personally leading the 
 Faithful to victory, and this untoward event had to be 
 provided for in the new doctrine of the sect. All Muham- 
 madans believe that the end of the world will be ushered 
 in by wars and seditions, great social upheavals, the rise 
 of low persons to high places, by earthquake, by pesti- 
 lence and famine. In that latter time will come the 
 Imam Mahdi, a descendant of Muhammad, and bearing 
 his name, born beyond the north-west frontier of the 
 Panjab, hidden from the eyes of men during a part of his 
 career, but finally the Buler of Arabia and the conqueror 
 of Constantinople, which, before then, will again have 
 been subjected to a Christian King. Then Antichrist 
 shall appear, and wage bitter war against the Imam. In 
 the end, ‘ Christ will descend on earth near a white tower 
 to the east of Damascus,’ destroy the legions of the wicked 
 one, and convert the whole world to the True Faith of 
 Muhammad. 
 
 The Indian Wahabis had claimed for Sayyid Ahmad 
 the title of the great Imam, who should thus precede the 
 final coming of Christ. But the events amid which his 
 career closed could in no way be reconciled with the 
 popular conception of this last struggle between good and 
 evil. They therefore boldly attacked the general belief, 
 and asserted that the true Imdm Mahdi was to come, not 
 at the Last Day, but as an intermediate leader half-way 
 between the death of Muhammad and the end of the 
 world. They showed that he had all the stigmata , to 
 borrow an analogy from Christian history, of the appointed 
 
PROPHECIES OF THE REBEL LEADER. 
 
 6 3 
 
 Imam. They brought an immense phalanx of authorities 
 to prove that the 13th century of their era (1786-1886 
 a.d.) was the period in which the Imam Mahdi should 
 appear. Ahmad was born in 1786. Even the Shiah 
 Doctors, hateful as their doctrines were to the Reformers, 
 were made use of. The Shiahs, indeed, had been much 
 more exact than the Sunnis, and fixed his advent in 1260 
 a.h., or a.d. 1844. Had not Muhammad himself said, 
 
 ‘ When you see the black flags coming from Khorass&n, 
 go forth, for with them is a Khalif, the Envoy of God?’ 
 The subversion of India beneath the Christian power, and 
 a hundred other signs of the times, plainly announced 
 the time of tribulation which was to herald his advent. 
 Prophecies were forged to give still greater certainty, 
 of which the following verses, taken from a long poem 
 still sung in Northern India, may serve as an ex- 
 ample : — 
 
 ‘ I see the power of God — I see distress in this world ; 
 
 On all sides I see great Annies fighting and plundering ; 
 
 I see low-born people learned in unprofitable learning, wearing the garb of 
 the priesthood. 
 
 I see the decline of virtue, the increase of pride ; 
 
 I see disputes and wars between the Turks and Persians. 
 
 I see beautiful countries deserted by the pious, and become the abode of the 
 wicked. 
 
 Though I see all this, I do not despair, as I see one the dispeller of Sorrow ; 
 
 I see that after 1200 years 1 have passed, wonderful events will occur ; 
 
 I see all the Kings of the earth arrayed one against the other ; 
 
 I see the Hindus in an evil state ; I see the Turks oppressed ; 
 
 Then the Imam will appear and rule over the earth ; 
 
 I see and read A.H.M.D. 2 (Ahmad), as the letters showing forth the name of 
 this ruler.’ 
 
 1 The original poem gives 750, which was changed to suit Ahmad’s death. 
 Calcutta Review, vol. c. p. 100, from which I extract these verses. 
 
 2 The original poem had M.H.M.D. (Muhammad). 
 
64 DOCTRINE OF THE CRESCENTADE. 
 
 Another favourite prophecy runs thus : — 
 
 The Ode of Xi'mat-ullah . 1 
 (May his grave be considered sacred .) 
 
 ‘ I tell the truth that there will be a King, 
 
 By the name of Timur, and he will reign thirty years.’ 
 
 ( Here follows a list of his successors down to the last of Shah Jahan's family.') 
 
 * Then there will be another King. 
 
 Nadir will invade Hindustan. 
 
 His sword ■null cause the massacre of Dehli. 
 
 After this, Ahmad Shah will invade. 
 
 And he will destroy the former dynasty. 
 
 After the death of this King, 
 
 The descendants of the former King will he reinstated. 
 
 The Sikh tribe will grow powerful at this time, and commit all sorts of 
 cruelties. 
 
 This will continue till forty years. 
 
 Then the Nazarenes will take all Hindustan. 
 
 They will reign a hundred years. 
 
 There will be great oppression in the world in their reign. 
 
 F or their destruction there will be a King in the W est. 
 
 This King will proclaim a war against the Nazarenes. 
 
 And in the war a great many people will be killed. 
 
 The King of the "West will be victorious by the force of the sword in a 
 Holy War, 
 
 And the followers of Jesus will be defeated. 
 
 Islam will prevail for forty years. 
 
 Then a faithless tribe will come out from Ispahan. 
 
 To drive out these tyrants, Jesus will come down, and the expected Mahdi 
 will appear. 
 
 All these will occur at the end of the world. 
 
 In 570 2 Hijra, this ode is composed. 
 
 In 1270 3 the King of the West will appear. 
 
 Ni'mat-ullah knew the mysteries of God ; 
 
 His prophecies will be fulfilled to men.’ 
 
 Having established the divine mission of their leader, 
 the Indian Wahabis passed direct from all minor ques- 
 tions to the great doctrine of Religious War. Throughout 
 
 1 I select a few verses from the entire ode, given in the Official Record of 
 the Wahabi Trial of 18G5. 
 
 2 1171-1175 a.d. 
 
 3 1S53-1S54 a.d. 
 
DOCTRINE OF THE CRESCENTADE. 65 
 
 the whole literature of the sect, this obligation shines 
 forth as the first duty of regenerate man. Their earliest 
 work thus lays down the law : — ‘Holy War is a work of 
 great profit : just as rain does good to mankind, beasts and 
 plants, so all persons are partakers in the advantages of a 
 War against the Infidel. The advantages are twofold: 
 general, of which all men, even idolaters and infidels, 
 animals and vegetables, partake ; special, of which only 
 certain classes are partakers, and partake in different 
 degrees. In connection with the general advantages, it 
 may be said that the blessings of Heaven, — viz. copious 
 showers at seasonable times, abundant supplies of vege- 
 table produce ; good times, so that people are void of 
 care and free from calamities, whilst their property in- 
 creases in value ; an increase in the number of learned 
 men, in the justness of judges, in the conscientiousness 
 of suitors, and in the liberality of the rich, — that these 
 blessings, increased an hundred-fold, are granted when 
 the dignity of the Muhammadan religion is upheld, and 
 Muhammadan kings possessing powerful armies become 
 exalted, and promulgate and enforce the Muhammadan 
 law in all countries. But look at this country (India), 
 as compared with Turkey or Turkistan, as far as the 
 blessings of Heaven are concerned. Nay, compare the 
 present state of Hindustan in this year 1233 Hijra (a.d. 
 1818), when the greater portion of it has become the 
 Country of the Enemy ( dar-ul-harb ), with the state of 
 India some two or three centuries back, and contrast the 
 blessings of Heaven now vouchsafed and the number of 
 learned men with those of that period.’ 
 
 Their most popular song breathes the same spirit. The 
 rebels in the Camp on our Frontier were drilled morning 
 and evening to the sound of its solemn strains, and the 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 A PSALM OF THE HOLY WAR. 
 
 companies of recruits who passed northwards from the 
 heart of our territory chaunted its stanzas along the 
 British high roads. 
 
 ‘ First I glorify God, who is beyond all praise ; I laud his Prophet, and write 
 a song on Holy War : 
 
 Holy War is a War carried on for religion, without any lust of Power. Iu 
 the Sacred Scriptures its glories are related : I mention a few. 
 
 War against the Infidel is incumbent on all Musalmans ; make provision for 
 it before all things. 
 
 He who from his heart gives one farthing to the cause, shall hereafter receive 
 seven hundred fold ; 
 
 And he who both gives and joins in the fight, shall receive seven thousand 
 fold from God. 
 
 He who shall equip a warrior in this cause of God shall obtain a martyr's 
 reward ; 
 
 His children dread not the trouble of the grave ; nor the last trump ; nor the 
 Day of Judgment. 
 
 Cease to be cowards ; join the divine leader, and smite the Infidel. 
 
 I give thanks to God that a great leader has been born in the thirteenth 
 century of the Hijra. 1 
 
 Oh friend, since you must some time die, is it not better to offer up your life 
 in the service of the Lord ? 
 
 Thousands go to war and come back unhurt ; thousands remain at home 
 and die. 
 
 You are filled with worldly care, and have forgotten your Maker in thinking 
 of your wives and children. 
 
 How long will you be able to remain with your wives and children ? how 
 long to escape death ? 
 
 If you give up this world for the sake of God, you enjoy the pleasures of 
 Heaven for ever. 
 
 Fill the uttermost ends of India with Islam, so that no sounds may be 
 heard but “ Allah ! Allah ! ” ’ 2 
 
 But any attempt at even the briefest epitome of the 
 Wahabi Treatises in prose and verse on the duty to wage 
 war against the English would fill a volume. The sect 
 has developed a copious literature filled with prophecies 
 of the downfall of the British Power, and devoted to 
 the duty of Pteligious Rebellion. The mere titles of its 
 
 1 A.D. 1786-1886. 
 
 2 Risala- Jihad, or Wahabi War Song. Calcutta Review, vol. cii. p. 396 et seq. 
 
LITERATURE OF THE HOLY WAR. 
 
 67 
 
 favourite works suffice to show their almost uniformly 
 treasonable character. I give below 1 a list of thirteen. 
 Some of them are of so flagrant a character as to require 
 to be secretly passed from hand to hand in manuscript. 
 Others are widely circulated. The poison, however, is 
 not confined to their readers alone, but is carried into 
 
 1 1. Sirat-ul-Mustakfm, or the Straight Path, being the sayings of the 
 Prophet Sayyid Ahmad, the Amfr-ul-Muminfn (Leader of the Faith- 
 ful). Written in Persian by Maulavf Muhammad Ismd’fl of Dehli ; 
 translated into Hindustani by Maulavf Abd-ul-Jabbdr of Cawnpur. 
 
 2. Kasfda, or Book of Poetry, setting forth the obligation of waging war 
 
 against the Infidel, and the rewards of all who partake in it, by 
 Maulavf Karam All of Cawnpur. 
 
 3. Sharh-i-Wakaya, a treatise on War against the Infidel, with ‘ full in- 
 
 structions as to those by whom and with whom the fight is to be 
 made.’ This work, however, only insists upon a Holy AVar when 
 the Infidel oppresses the True Believer. 
 
 4. A Prophetic Poem by Maulavf Ni’mat-ullah, foretelling the downfall 
 
 of the British Power, and the coming of a King from the West who 
 shall deliver the Indian Muhammadans from the English. 
 
 5. Tawarfkh Kaisar Bum, or Misbah-us-Sarf, being a history of Abd-ul- 
 
 Wahhdb, the Founder of the sect ; his persecutions and wars against 
 the Turkish apostates. MS. 
 
 G. Asar Mahsliar, or Signs of the Last Day, by Maulavf Muhammad Ah', 
 printed in 1265 A.H., or 1849 a.d. This book of Poetry has been 
 widely circulated. It foretells a war in the Khyber hills on the 
 Panjdb Frontier, where the English will first vanquish the Faithful, 
 whereupon the Muhammadans will make search for their true Imam. 
 Then there will be a battle lasting four days, ending in the com- 
 plete overthrow of the English, ‘ even the very smell of Govern- 
 ment being driven out of their heads and brains.’ Thereafter the 
 Imam Mahdi will appear; and the Muhammadans being now the 
 rulers of India, will flock to meet him at Mecca. These events will 
 be heralded in by an eclipse both of the sun and moon in the month 
 of Ramazdn. 
 
 7. The Takwiat-ul-Iman, or Strengthening of the Faith, written by 
 
 Maulavf Muhammad Ismd’fl of Dehli. 
 
 8. Tazkfr-ul-Akhdwf, or Brotherly Conversation, by the same author. 
 
 9. Nasfhat-ul-Muslimfn, or Advice to Muhammadans, by Maulavf Karam 
 
 Alf of Cawnpur. 
 
 10. The Hiddyat-ul-Muminfn, or Guide to the Faithful, written by Aulad 
 
 Husain. 
 
 11. Tanwfr-ul-Ainain, or Enlightening of the Eyes, an Arabic work. 
 
 12. Tanbfh-ul-Ghdfilm, or Rebuke of the Negligent, in Urdu. 
 
 13. Chihil Hadis, or the forty traditions of Muhammad regarding Holy 
 
 War. 
 
68 
 
 LITERATURE OF THE HOLY WAR. 
 
 every District of Bengal by a swarm of preachers, every 
 one of whom is carefully nurtured in treason before he 
 goes forth on his proselytising work. 
 
 Many of these works are openly sold in the towns 
 of British India, the most violent and seditious finding 
 the greatest favour with the multitude. But an inflam- 
 matory literature is only one part of a permanent four- 
 fold organisation which the Wahabi leaders use for 
 spreading the doctrine of Rebellion. Besides it they 
 have, in the first place, the Central Propaganda at 
 Patna, which for a time defied the British Authorities 
 in that city, and which, although to a certain extent 
 broken up by repeated State Trials, still exerts an influ- 
 ence throughout all Bengal. The Prophet, in appointing 
 Khalifs at Patna in 1821, chose men of indomitable zeal 
 and strength of will. We have seen how, time after 
 time, when the cause appeared ruined, they again and 
 again raised the standard of Holy War from the dust. 
 Indefatigable as missionaries, careless of themselves, 
 blameless in their lives, supremely devoted to the over- 
 throw of the English Infidels, admirably skilful in orga- 
 nising a permanent system for supplying money and 
 recruits, the Patna Khalifs stand forth as the types and 
 exemplars of the Sect. Much of their teaching was 
 faultless, and it has been given to them to stir up thou- 
 sands of their countrymen to a purer life, and a truer 
 conception of the Almighty. But a mere system of 
 morality can never hold together a great sect. The reli- 
 gious element in the revival soon began to lose its power. 
 Even under the early leaders of the movement it showed 
 signs of wearing out, and the Khalifs had to appeal more 
 and more exclusively to their hearers’ detestation of the 
 Infidel. 
 
THE PATNA PROPAGANDA. 69 
 
 The Patna Propaganda clearly perceived this, and 
 suited their teachings to the new requirements of the 
 times. Instead of trusting to the terrors of an awakened 
 conscience, they enlisted the more certain and more per- 
 manent hatred which the Indian Muhammadans feel 
 towards the English. They thus transferred the basis 
 of their teaching from the noblest capabilities of the 
 Musalm&n heart to the fanatical fury of the populace. 
 As time went on, they found it necessary constantly to 
 strengthen the seditious element in their preaching. 
 They converted the Patna Propaganda into a Caravan- 
 serai for rebels and traitors. They surrounded it with a 
 labyrinth of walls and outhouses, with one enclosure 
 leading into another by side-doors, and little secret 
 courts in out-of-the-way corners. The early Khah'fs had 
 threatened to resist the Magistrate’s warrant by force 
 of arms, but their successors found a less dangerous 
 defence in a network of passages, chambers, and out- 
 lets. When the Government at length took proceedings 
 against this nest of conspirators, it found it necessary 
 to procure a plan of the buildings, just as if it were 
 dealing with a fortified town. The district missionaries 
 sent up fanatical crowds to the Propaganda. Of these, 
 the greater part, after having their zeal still further 
 stimulated by the lectures of the Patna Leaders, were 
 sent off by detachments to the Camp on the Fron- 
 tier. The more promising youths were singled out 
 for a longer course of instruction ; and after being 
 thoroughly trained in the doctrine of sedition, were re- 
 turned as colporteurs or missionaries to their own Pro- 
 vince. 
 
 I have been anxious to do full justice to whatever 
 is good in the history of the Patna Khalifs. Starting 
 
70 
 
 THE DISTRICT MISSIONARIES. 
 
 with an admirable system of morality, they by degrees 
 abandoned the spiritual element in their teaching, and 
 strengthened their declining cause by appealing to the 
 worst passions of the human heart. I shall afterwards 
 give a sample of the sermons of the Missionaries whom 
 they have trained. Here is a specimen of the teaching 
 by which that training is effected. The Propaganda 
 ceaselessly insists that the Indian Muhammadan who 
 would save himself from hell, has the single alternative 
 of W ar against the Infidel or Flight 1 from the accursed 
 land. No True Believer can live loyal to our Govern- 
 ment without perdition to his soul. ‘ Those who would 
 deter others from Holy War or Flight are in heart hypo- 
 crites. Let all know this. In a country where the 
 ruling religion is other than Muhammadanism, the reli- 
 gious precepts of Muhammad cannot be enforced. It is 
 incumbent on Musalmans to join together, and wage war 
 upon the Infidels. Those who are unable to take part 
 in the fight should emigrate to a country of the True 
 Faith. At the present time in India, flight is a stern 
 duty. He who denies this, let him declare himself a 
 slave to sensuality. He who, having gone away, returns 
 again, let him know that all his past services are vain. 
 Should he die in India, he will lose the way of sal- 
 vation. 
 
 ‘ In short, Oh Brethren, we ought to weep over our 
 state, for the Messenger of God is angered with us be- 
 cause of our living in the land of the Infidel. When the 
 Prophet of God himself is displeased with us, to whom 
 shall we look for shelter ? Those whom God has sup- 
 plied with the means should resolve upon flight, for a 
 fire is raging here. If we speak the truth, we shall be 
 
 1 Jilidd or Hijra. 
 
THE WAHABI MISSIONARY. 71 
 
 hanged ; and if we remain silent, injury is done to our 
 faith .’ 1 
 
 Besides their seditious literature, and the Central 
 Propaganda at Patna, the Wahabis have a permanent 
 machinery throughout the rural districts for spreading 
 their faith. Dangerous firebrands as the local mission- 
 aries sometimes prove, I find it impossible to speak of 
 them without respect. Most of them start life as youths 
 of enthusiastic piety ; many of them retain their zeal for 
 religion to the end, with singularly little tincture of the 
 poisonous doctrines in which the Patna preachers have 
 trained them. The civilised man, cribbed within cities, 
 and only permitted to move about this world clogged 
 with luggage, and in the ceaseless society of fellow-tra- 
 vellers, can with difficulty realise the unencumbered life 
 and isolated wanderings of the Wahdbi Missionary. We 
 all feel that the soul gathers sanctity in solitude, and 
 perhaps the pilgrim on his lonely foot journey through 
 forest and over mountain thinks purer and fresher 
 thoughts than the work-a-day in-door world. Certain 
 it is that the Wahdbi Missionary furnishes, so far as 
 my experience goes, the most spiritual and least selfish 
 type of the sect. Englishmen love to believe that their 
 ancestors, when at their best, lived more in the open in 
 Merry England than we do now; and childhood leaves 
 no more refreshing memories to the life-wearied man than 
 reminiscences of the out-door scenery through which, in 
 the great Christian allegory, the pilgrim passes from the 
 town of Destruction to the Celestial City. 
 
 This Forest of Arden spirit reached its highest de- 
 velopment in ancient India, where the friendliness of 
 
 1 Jama Tafasir, printed at Dehli, 1867. Calcutta Review , cii. p. 391. The 
 first paragraph is condensed from idem, p. 393. 
 
72 
 
 THE WAHABI MISSIONAR Y. 
 
 nature rendered unnecessary those contrivances which 
 in colder climates elevate man’s shelter into his home. 
 The Sanskrit scheme of life required that each house- 
 holder sprung from the chosen race should, after beget- 
 ting children into the world, leave his kindred and dwell 
 apart in the forest. Every popular tale introduces us to 
 some venerable eremite beside a running stream, and the 
 most charming scenes of Sakuntald are those which dis- 
 cover the maiden surrounded by tame fawns in her forest 
 glade. The Wahabi leaders have skilfully availed them- 
 selves of this national hankering in India after a solitary 
 life. Even the refuse of great cities, when they have 
 exhausted their fortunes by dissipation, or wearied out 
 by their crimes the patience of the law, can obtain a sort 
 of sanctity by joining a religious order, and retiring to 
 the mountains, or travelling companionless from province 
 to province. Much more does the blameless, lonely life of 
 the Wahabi Missionary render him an object of interest 
 to the villagers upon his route. Throughout many months 
 of the year he enters the door of no human dwelling. 
 He comes from a distant Province, and during the long 
 journey he admits no companion, save perhaps a faithful 
 disciple, to interrupt his self-communings. His serenity 
 of demeanour and indifference to external surroundings 
 make him a visibly different being from ordinary men. 
 It is not surprising, therefore, that the villagers cluster 
 around him, and forget for a moment their disputes about 
 water-courses, and their long standing boundary feuds. 
 The preacher does not always inculcate treason, but only 
 those doctrines which lead their adopters into treason ; 
 doctrines which, to use Bacon’s impressive aphorism, do 
 dissolve and deface the laws of charity and of human 
 society, and bring down the spirit of God, instead of in 
 
NOT ALWAYS A TRAITOR. 
 
 73 
 
 the likeness of a dove, in the shape of a vulture or raven. 
 Some of the missionaries, indeed, refrain altogether from 
 poisonous teachings of this sort. In 1870, when travel- 
 ling through the fanatical Eastern Districts of Bengal, I 
 heard of such a case ; and I should be very sorry if I 
 were supposed to use the term Wahabi as a synonym for 
 traitor. A Wah&bi preacher had appeared in a lonely 
 village, and forthwith several thousand Muhammadans 
 gathered around him. The Hindus of the neighbourhood 
 dreaded one of those outbursts of zeal against the Infidel 
 in which such conventicles often end, and hurried off 
 messengers to the Headquarters of the District for help. 
 But the preacher, while fulminating against the corrupt 
 life and idolatrous practices of his Muhammadan hearers, 
 refused altogether to touch upon the doctrine of Religious 
 Rebellion. Such mere moralities were by no means what 
 the people had come out into the wilderness to hear, and 
 the disappointed multitude melted away. By the time 
 the Hindu messengers returned, they found the so-called 
 apostle of treason absolutely deserted by his co-religionists, 
 and dependent upon the Hindu villagers for fire and a 
 little rice. 
 
 Generally speaking, the Wahabi Missionary has little 
 to fear from the British Officers of the Districts through 
 which he passes ; and, indeed, his favourite preaching- 
 ground is the open shady space thronged with suitors 
 outside the Magistrate’s Court. The first preacher whose 
 acquaintance I made was encamped in the avenue of the 
 Commissioner’s Circuit House. It was only an old man 
 talking to a group of Musalmfins under a piped tree. 
 Close by, an undersized reddish pony, with a large head 
 fixed on a lanky neck, tried to switch off the flies from 
 a saddle-gall by means of a very ragged tail. The poor 
 
74 THE WAHABI MISSIONARY AT WORK. 
 
 beast, liis fore-feet tied together with grass rope, hopped 
 painfully from one tuft of verdure to another, occasionally 
 turning his head round savagely on some fly bej'ond the 
 reach of the ragged tail, but soon relapsing with out- 
 stretched neck into the listlessness of an animal utterly 
 worn out with travel. The old man had a fresh com- 
 plexion and a long white beard. He mumbled his words 
 a little, but not enough to hide the vigorous North- 
 country inflection with which he delivered his sentences, 
 lie himself seemed very much in earnest, but his eight or 
 ten hearers listened with stupid ej^es, and, saving a slight 
 obeisance when they departed, came and went with all 
 the freedom of a street preacher’s congregation in Eng- 
 land. It was the month of May, and the old man 
 vehemently denounced the follies of the coming festival. 
 By no means careful not to offend, he told his hearers 
 that they would wear their new clothes on their old 
 hearts ; that they would stun their ears with the lutes 
 and drums of the Bengali unbelievers till they were deaf 
 to the simple truths of the Kuran ; and that the whole 
 festival of the Muharram, its sham fights, its feigned 
 mourning, its wild feasting, its mock penitence, were 
 utterly abominable to God and his Prophet. 
 
 The Musalmans of a quiet village in Western Bengal 
 are not the best sort of soil for a Reformer to cast his 
 seed into ; and as the group broke up at the close of the 
 harangue, public opinion, although divided, was mainly 
 against the preacher. One said : 1 This man would have 
 us let the lamp go out at the tomb of our father.’ 
 Another : ‘ lie forbids the drums and dancing-girls at 
 the marriage of our daughters.’ A third was more 
 favourable : ‘Yet he knows the seventy- seven thousand 
 six hundred and thirty -nine words of the Kuran. He 
 
THE WAHABI MISSIONARY AT WORN. 
 
 75 
 
 says well too, that the Book (Al-Kitdb) bids us pray only 
 to God. Truly he is a Doctor of the Law.’ This view, 
 however, was controverted by a Mulla, or crier from the 
 Mosque, who authoritatively ended the discussion. ‘ This 
 fellow,’ he said, ‘is a follower of the false Imam who took 
 the Holy Cities by the sword, closed up the path of 
 pilgrimage, and wrote on the door of the Pure House, 
 “There is no God but one God, and Sa’ud is his Prophet’” 
 (La ihiha illa-llah, Sa’ud Rasul illah). 
 
 Altogether the sermon fell rather flat, and the preacher 
 was aware of it. The crow r d, wdien dispersed, left a 
 residue of two Musalmdns in very soiled clothes, who 
 appeared to be fellow-travellers of the preacher, and who 
 watched his every motion with reverence. He talked to 
 them in low earnest tones for some time, and then com- 
 posed himself to sleep, while his dirty disciples fanned 
 him by turns. The jaded pony, too, gave up any further 
 search after the parched tufts of grass, and, forgetful of his 
 daily wrongs, w T ent to sleep standing under an adjacent 
 tree. In the cool of the evening the party departed as it 
 came, unnoticed ; the old man on the little pony, and the 
 two soiled followers trudging along on either side of him. 
 
 It must be remembered that the Indian Wahabis are 
 only a small fragment of a great sect. The unsuccessful 
 preacher is the representative of many thousand earnest 
 men at this moment wandering over Asia, sometimes 
 acknowledged, sometimes ignored, at the mosques ; speak- 
 ing various tongues, but all devoted to the one great work 
 of purifying the creed of Muhammad, as Hildebrand’s 
 monks purged the Church of Rome. 
 
 It is one of the misfortunes attendant on the British 
 Rule in India, that this Reformation should be insepar- 
 ably linked with hatred against the Infidel Conquerors. 
 
76 A MISSIONARY TREASON SERMON 
 
 But everywhere, any attempt by the Muhammadans to 
 return to the first principles of their Faith involves a 
 revolt against the ruling power ; for even the most ortho- 
 dox Musalman State has had to mould those principles 
 to the necessities of Civil Government. Mecca itself, the 
 stronghold of Isldm, is the place throughout all the world 
 where the sect is most feared and detested. In the last 
 few pages I have sketched the Wahdbi emissary under his 
 milder aspects ; but many of them are simply men who 
 live by pandering to the fanatical sedition of the lowest 
 classes of their countrymen. The following is a specimen 
 of the harangues by w r hich they perpetuate the old 
 Muhammadan hatred against British Rule. The first 
 duty of a Musalman is Religious Rebellion ; and to those 
 who reply that such Rebellion is impracticable under the 
 British Power, they answer that the only alternative is 
 flight. The land, and everything that grows on it, are 
 accursed so long as an Infidel Government rules. I have 
 already given examples of the Wahabi exhortations to 
 Holy War, in prose and verse. Here are the arguments 
 by which they persuade the ignorant peasantry of Eastern 
 Bengal, that as they cannot rise en masse , the only way to 
 escape eternal torment is to quit their homesteads, and 
 emigrate wholesale from the country of the Infidel : — 
 
 £ In the name of God. The merciful and kind God 
 is all goodness. He is the Lord of the Universe. May 
 divine kindness and safety attend Muhammad — His 
 Messenger — -and all his descendants and companions. 
 Know ye that all Muhammadans are bound to leave a 
 country which is governed by the Infidel, in which acting 
 according to the Muhammadan law is forbidden by the 
 ruling power. If they do not abandon it, then in the 
 hour of death, when their souls will be separated from 
 
A WAHABI SERMON. 
 
 77 
 
 their bodies, they will suffer great torments. When the 
 Angel of Death will come to separate their souls from 
 their bodies, he will ask them this question : W as not the 
 kingdom of God spacious enough to enable you to leave 
 your homes and settle in another country ? And saying 
 this, he will subject them to great pain in separating 
 their souls from their bodies. Afterwards they will suffer 
 the torments of the grave without intermission, and on 
 the Day of Judgment they will be cast into hell, where 
 they will suffer eternal punishment. May God forbid 
 that Muhammadans should die in a country ruled over 
 by the Infidel. 
 
 ‘ Make your escape now. Go to a country which is 
 governed by Musalmans, and live there in the land of the 
 Faithful. If you reach it alive, then all the sins of your 
 life will be forgiven. Do not trouble yourself about the 
 means of livelihood. God, who provides for all, will give 
 you food wherever you may be. 
 
 1 In the Holy Traditions it is written how an Israelite 
 who had murdered ninety-nine men went to a man of 
 God, confessed his crimes, and asked how he could obtain 
 forgiveness. The man of God answered : “If any person 
 unjustly kills even one man, he will certainly be damned. 
 Your sins will not be forgiven ; you will certainly go to 
 hell.” Hearing this, the Israelite said : “ I must go to 
 hell, that is certain . I shall therefore kill you in order to 
 make up a hundred murders.” He then killed the holy 
 man, and, going to another holy man, confessed that he 
 had committed one hundred murders, and asked how he 
 could obtain forgiveness. This man of God answered : 
 “ By sincere repentance and the performance of Flight 
 from the land of the Infidel.” As soon as he heard this 
 he repented of his sins, and leaving his country, set out 
 
73 
 
 DISTRICT-CENTRES OF SEDITION. 
 
 for a foreign land. On the way death approached, and 
 both the Angels — viz. the Angel of Mercy and the Angel 
 of Punishment — appeared to separate his soul from his 
 bod} 7 . The Angel of Mercy said that he would separate 
 the man’s soul from his body because he had repented of 
 his sins and performed Flight. The Angel of Punishment 
 admitted that if the man had succeeded in reaching 
 another kingdom, the office would have belonged to the 
 Angel of Mercy ; but that he claimed the right of per- 
 forming the operation, and of subjecting the man to tor- 
 ments, because he had not succeeded in completing the 
 Flight to a land of the True Believers. Then both Angels 
 measured the land on which the man was lying, and 
 found that one of his feet had crossed the boundary, and 
 lay within a kingdom of Ishim. On this the Angel of 
 Mercy, declaring that his right was established, painlessly 
 separated the soul from his body, and the man was ad- 
 mitted amongst the favoured of God. You have heard 
 how Religious Flight is rewarded in the next world. 
 Therefore pray to God for grace to enable all of you to 
 perform Flight, and to perform it quickly, lest you die in 
 an infidel country .’ 1 
 
 But besides their teeming literature of treason, their 
 Central Propaganda at Patna, and their Missionaries 
 wandering throughout the length and breadth of Bengal, 
 the Wahabis have invented a fourth organisation for 
 reaching the seditious masses. The earlier Khalifs 
 favoured the efforts of their emissaries to effect a per- 
 manent settlement wherever the multitude of their con- 
 verts encouraged their doing so. A number of Traitor 
 Settlements have thus been established throughout rural 
 Bengal. These District-Centres of treason keep up a 
 
 1 Abbreviated from Calcutta Review , cii. pp. 388-389. 
 
DISTRICT-CENTRES OF SEDITION \ 1870. 
 
 79 
 
 regular correspondence with the Propaganda at Patna, 
 and each has its own machinery for raising money and 
 recruits, complete within itself. In 1870 two such Dis- 
 trict-Centres were broken up, and their chief preachers, 
 after impartial trial by the Courts, sentenced to trans- 
 portation for life and forfeiture of property. The evidence 
 which then came out might well appal any alien Govern- 
 ment less confident in its own integrity than that of 
 British India. I shall briefly narrate the history of one 
 of the prisoners. 
 
 About thirty years ago, one of the Khalifs 1 came on 
 a missionary tour to Maldah District in Lower Bengal. 
 The field proving good, he settled for several years in a 
 village, married one of the daughters of the place, and 
 established himself as a schoolmaster. The children of 
 the petty proprietors flocked to the learned man, and in 
 this way he insinuated himself into the landed families 
 of the District. He preached rebellion with great force 
 and unction, accustomed the people to a regular system 
 of contributions for the Holy War, and forwarded yearly 
 supplies of money and men to the Propaganda at Patna, 
 for transmission to the Frontier Camp. One of his tax- 
 collectors, 2 whom he had raised from the rank of an 
 ordinary peasant, turned out to be a man of zeal and 
 talent. He received a fourth of the collections as salary, 
 and gradually became a ruling elder in the village. For 
 many years he carried on his business undisturbed, hut 
 about 1853 the Magistrate’s suspicions were aroused. The 
 religious tax-gatherer’s house was searched, and letters 
 were found proving the seditious character of his trade, 
 
 1 Abd-ur-rahmdn, a native of Lucknow, appointed to the Caliphate by 
 one of the original Khalifs, Wilayat Ah'. 
 
 2 Kafik Mandal. 
 
8 o 
 
 THE MALDAH DISTRICT-CENTRE, 1870 . 
 
 and his connection with the Holy W ar which the Frontier 
 Camp had shortly before tried to stir up in the Panjab. 1 
 
 The District-Centre was arrested, but, with our usual 
 contempt for petty conspirators, was shortly afterwards 
 released. His brief imprisonment sufficed, however, to 
 make it dangerous for him to continue his treasonable 
 levies, and he resigned his office as religious tax-gatherer 
 to his son.' 2 His successor proved himself worthy of 
 the post ; and, to use the neutral-tinted and indeed 
 gently appreciative words of the officer in charge of his 
 case, 3 ‘from that time up to the date of his trial, he 
 seems to have honestly exerted himself to the utmost in 
 sustaining the Religious War by recruits.’ All this he 
 did wholly undisturbed by the District Authorities. An 
 English Magistrate in India has the reluctance of a prefect 
 of the Augustan Empire to intermeddle with the various 
 beliefs or superstitions of the races over whom he rules. 
 Treason can thus safely walk about under a religious 
 habit. But the State Trial 4 at Patna in 1865 disclosed the 
 Maldali District-Centre’s share in the general conspiracy. 
 In spite of this warning, however, he continued his levies 
 of money and men for the Frontier War ; openly went 
 from village to village preaching rebellion; and in 1868, 
 when he found the liberality of his people slackening, 
 brought down the son of the Patna Ivhalif to assist him 
 in reviving their zeal. His jurisdiction extended over 
 
 1 In 1852, when the 4th Native Infantry were tampered with, and the 
 Patna Magistrate reported the growth of the sect, and their determination to 
 resist further inquiries in that city by force of arms. 
 
 2 Maulavi Amir-ud-din of Maldali. 
 
 3 Report filed with the Record of the Maldah Trial of 1870. Official Papers. 
 
 4 In the matter of Maulavi Ahmad-ullah, who was convicted of treason, 
 and sentenced by the Sessions Court to death and forfeiture of property, 
 the capital part of his sentence being afterwards mitigated to transportation 
 for life. 
 
THE FOUR TAXES FOR TREASON, 1870. 81 
 
 three separate Districts; 1 and for several days’ journey 
 down the Ganges the ignorant Musalman peasantry on 
 both banks, and on the islands which the river has thrown 
 up in its bed, owned his control. The number of recruits 
 whom he sent to the Frontier Camp can never be ascer- 
 tained ; but at a single one of the Traitor outposts on our 
 Frontier, containing 430 fighting men, more than ten per 
 cent, had been supplied from his jurisdiction. 
 
 His system of pecuniary levies was simple and com- 
 plete. lie grouped together the villages into fiscal clusters, 
 and to each cluster he appoint ed a chief tax-gatherer. This 
 officer, on his part, appointed a village collector to every 
 hamlet, checked their collections, and transmitted the pro- 
 ceeds to the District-Centre. As a rule, each village had 
 one tax-gatherer ; but in populous villages a larger staff 
 was employed, consisting of the priest, 2 who led the prayers 
 and gathered the contributions ; the general manager 3 or 
 Deacon, who looked after the worldly affairs of the sect ; 
 and an officer 4 who supplied messengers for dangerous 
 letters, and for transmitting the oblations of treason. 
 
 These oblations are of four kinds. The first is a tax of 
 two and a half per cent, on all property held in possession 
 during the lunar year. It hears the name of ‘ Legal 
 Alms,’ 5 and has from the first been devoted to war 
 against the Infidel. This tax, however, only falls upon 
 property above a certain value, and the Patna Khalff 6 
 on his return from the Frontier Camp found its pro- 
 ceeds inadequate to support the Holy War. He accord- 
 ingly appropriated the voluntary alms given for indigent 
 persons at the Mosque, and thus confiscated the patri- 
 
 1 Including the whole of Maldah, and parts of the Districts of Murshidabad 
 and Rdjshdhi. 
 
 2 Dm-ke-sarddr. 3 Dunya-ke-sarddr. 
 
 3 Zakdt. 0 Indyat Ah'. 
 
 F 
 
 4 Ddk-ke-sarddr. 
 
32 
 
 THE FOUR TAXES FOR TREASON, ^70. 
 
 mony of the poor to the purpose of rapine and revolt. 
 Such alms are bestowed as a solemn religious duty on the 
 great Muhammadan festival of the year. To the month 
 of fasting and humiliation 1 succeeds an ecstasy of religious 
 rejoicing . 2 But before entering the Mosque to hear the 
 festival prayers, the devout Musalman believes that he 
 must distribute of his substance to the poor, or the 
 whole penance of the past thirty da}'s will be refused by 
 God. It was these offerings 3 which the Patna Ivhalff 
 swept into the Traitors’ purse. He also invented a new 
 tax, from which even the poorest could not escape. He 
 commanded every head of a famil}- to put aside a handful 4 
 of rice for each member of his household at every meal, 
 and to deposit it after the Friday prayers with the village 
 collector. In this way stores of grain were gathered 
 together, and publicly sold on behoof of the Holy War. 
 Such imposts, however, represented only the minimum 
 which the religious tax-gatherers had a right to exact. 
 The provident Khalff took care that ample scope should 
 be given for the zeal of new converts, or for the sudden 
 impulses produced by a stirring sermon. He accordingly 
 devised an extraordinary cess, to be bestowed at intervals 
 as a voluntary donation, over and above the regular taxes 
 which his collectors demanded as a matter of right. The 
 tax-gatherers-in-chief made an annual tour, each through 
 his own group of villages, at the time of the great festival, 
 and took care that every family had paid up its dues for 
 the past twelve months in full. 
 
 District-Centres of equal ability in levj’ing money 
 and recruits are scattered over Bengal, and the unfor- 
 tunate man whom I have selected as an example was only 
 
 1 Ramazan. 
 3 Fitr. 
 
 2 'Id-ul-fitr, or Ramazan-ki-’fd. 
 4 Mutthi. 
 
VITALITY OF A WAHABI SETTLEMENT, 1870. 83 
 
 one of many. His Headquarters lay upon the great 
 thoroughfare from Lower Bengal to the North-West, and 
 formed a halting-place for every seditious preacher who 
 travelled up or down. The two Khalifs who testified to 
 the death on the Frontier 1 had partaken of his hospi- 
 tality. One of the present leaders of the Rebel Camp 2 
 had also stayed with him en route; and many District- 
 Centres, together with the heads of the Patna Propa- 
 ganda, have been his guests. His town 3 formerly lay 
 on the right bank of the Ganges, at a distance from the 
 Headquarters of the District, or from any police village 
 belonging to it. Even the great convulsions of nature 
 which destroyed the town helped to spread the cause. 
 The Ganges, in one of its huge writhings backwards and 
 forwards across the countiy, ate away the land on its right 
 bank, so that not a vestige of the Wahabi Settlement 
 remains. The inhabitants dispersed, some to a newly- 
 formed island near the left bank of the river, others to 
 various inland hamlets ; and wherever they went, each 
 little party became a centre of sedition. As the river 
 throws up new land, a Wahabi colony immediately takes 
 possession, and forms the nucleus of a new village. 
 
 It may well be supposed that so permanent and 
 so widely spread a disaffection has caused grave anxiety 
 to the Indian Government. During the past seven years, 
 one traitor after another has been convicted and trans- 
 ported for life. Indeed, each of the fanatic wars on our 
 Frontier has produced its corresponding State Trial within 
 our Territory. At this moment a large body of prisoners, 
 drawn from widely distant Districts, are suffering for their 
 common crimes or awaiting their trial. Since the first 
 edition of this work appeared, a month ago, another band, 
 1 Inayat All' and Maksud All. 2 Fyaz All'. 3 Nardyanpur. 
 
8 4 
 
 WAHABI STATE TRIAL OF 1864. 
 
 five in number, have been sentenced by the Sessions’ 
 Court to transportation for life. It is difficult to speak of 
 those who have been convicted without prejudice to the 
 chance of escape of those who have yet to be tried ; for 
 the evidence already on record mixes up the names of 
 both. Yet these State Trials form one of the most curious 
 phenomena in Indian History; and without using the 
 details furnished by them, it is impossible to follow the 
 ramifications of the chronic conspiracy in Bengal. I 
 shall therefore select the one which is furthest removed 
 from the pending proceedings in point of time, and care- 
 fully exclude everything which might tend to the pre- 
 judice of any of the unfortunate men awaiting their 
 trial, but not yet adjudged guilty by the law. 
 
 The trial of 1864 was the natural outcome of the 
 disastrous fanatic war in 1863. Unlike the judicial pro- 
 ceedings of previous years, it was no longer a few sepoys 
 of a Native Regiment, or an isolated preacher of sedition, 
 whose treason had to be inquired into, but a widely rami- 
 fied conspiracy spread over distant Provinces, and fur- 
 nished with ample machinery for secrecy and self-defence. 
 In July 1864, Sir Herbert Edwardes, as Sessions Judge at 
 Amballa, delivered judgment in a State Trial which had 
 occupied the Court during nearl}’ twenty sittings. Eleven 
 Musalman subjects of the British Crown stood at the 
 bar charged with high treason. Among them were repre- 
 sentatives of every rank of Muhammadan society : priests 
 of the highest family, an army contractor and wholesale 
 butcher, a scrivener, a soldier, an itinerant preacher, a 
 house-steward, and a husbandman. They had been de- 
 fended by English Counsel ; they had had the full advan- 
 tage both of technical pleas in bar and of able pleadings 
 on the merits of the case ; six of their countrymen had sat 
 
WAHABI STATE TRIAL OF 1864. 
 
 35 
 
 as Assessors with the Judge on the bench ; and the trial 
 ended in the condemnation of eight of them to trans- 
 portation for life, and of the remaining three to the last 
 penalty of the law. 
 
 The vast Northern Presidency contains races of many 
 shades of colour, and of great diversity of dialect ; and it 
 would be easier for an Italian to pass as an Englishman 
 in London, than for a Bengali to play the Panjabi at 
 Peshdwar. Our officers noticed, during the frontier cam- 
 paign of 1858, that numbers of the enemy slain in battle 
 had the unmistakeable dark, sallow complexion which is 
 imparted by the steamy swamps of Lower Bengal. The 
 clue, however, could not be followed up at that time. At 
 the end of the campaign the Irregular Horse were re- 
 duced, and several of the deserving men enrolled in the 
 Mounted Police. One of them, a Panjabi Musalmdn, 1 
 soon rose to the rank of sergeant in a District 2 near 
 Ambdlla. In May 1863, while on his rounds one morning, 
 he descried four foreigners proceeding along the Great 
 North Road. Their diminutive stature, dingy complexion, 
 and puny beards, reminded the old soldier of the Bengdli 
 traitors he had seen amid the dead on the battle-field in 
 1858. He got into conversation with them, worked him- 
 self into their secrets, and at length elicited that they 
 were Bengdli emissaries from Malkd, on their way back 
 to their native province to arrange for the forwarding of 
 fresh supplies of money and men. 
 
 The tall Northerner at once arrested the four traitors. 
 They appealed to him as a brother Muhammadan, and 
 offered him any bribe he would name, to be paid by a 
 certain scrivener, Ja’far Khdn, in the neighbouring market 
 town of Thdneswar. But the old soldier proved faithful to 
 
 1 Guzan Klian by name. 
 
 2 Kamil. 
 
86 
 
 WAHABI STATE TRIAL OF 1864. 
 
 his salt, and forthwith sent them before the Magistrate. 
 There can be little doubt, if that officer had at once com- 
 mitted these four Bengalis, the whole conspiracy would 
 have been detected; the Fanatics would not have ven- 
 tured to attack our Guide Corps ; and the British Empire 
 would have been spared a bloody campaign. But at that 
 time the Empire was in profound peace ; Th&neswar is a 
 quiet inland district ; High Treason is a rare crime ; false 
 charges by the Indian Police for the purpose of extorting 
 money are the commonest occurrences. The Magistrate, 
 in refusing to commit the four peaceable wayfarers, only 
 acted in the way which, in ninety-nine out of a hundred 
 cases, would have been consonant with substantial justice. 
 
 This, however, happened to be the hundredth case. 
 
 The Sergeant of Mounted Police took affront at the 
 release of his prisoners. The feeling that his report 
 had been doubted preyed upon his high Panjabi spirit, 
 and he still felt perfectly certain that a great unseen 
 danger was about to break upon our Empire. 
 
 He devised an enterprise hardly surpassed in the 
 legends of Spartan fortitude or the annals of Homan 
 fidelity. To abandon his post without leave would have 
 been desertion ; but he had a son in his native village, far 
 in the North, whom he loved better than anything upon 
 earth, except the family honour. Between his village and 
 the Frontier lay our outposts, all on the alert to stop any 
 stray plunderer or absconding traitor. Bej'ond the Frontier 
 were the Fanatics, on the eve of their great act of overt 
 hostility^ to the Crown, and in the last degree suspicious 
 of any stranger not forwarded in the regular manner by 
 their agents within our Empire. The father, well knowing 
 that his son, if he escaped being hanged at our outposts 
 as a traitor on his way to join the Rebel Camp, ran a very 
 
DISCOVERY OF THE PLOT. 
 
 87 
 
 imminent risk of being strangled by the Wahabis as a 
 spy, commanded his boy in the name of the family honour 
 to go to Malkd, and not to return till he could bring back 
 the names of the conspirators within our territory who 
 were aiding the Fanatics outside. 
 
 The son received the letter, and next day disappeared 
 from the village. What were his sufferings and hair- 
 breadth escapes, none but his own family knows. But it 
 came out in evidence that he completely deceived the 
 Wahabis, joined in their descent upon Sittdna, repassed 
 our outposts unscathed, and turning neither to the left 
 nor to the right, presented himself one evening at his 
 father’s liut, many hundred miles inland, worn out by 
 travel, want, and disease, but charged with the secret, 
 1 that Munshi Ja’far of Thaneswar, whom men call Khalifa, 
 was the great man who passed up the Bengalis and their 
 carbines and rifles.’ Now Ja’far was the scrivener in the 
 market town of Thaneswar, who would have at once 
 paid the bribe, if the Sergeant had let the four travellers 
 go. 
 
 I can recall no more touching picture of prisca fides 
 than that stern Panjabi father, riding proudly and silently 
 on his daily rounds, brooding over his distrusted word, 
 and, as the months passed, growing sick and more sick 
 regarding the fate of the son, whose life he had imperilled 
 to redeem his honour, and to save the foreign masters who 
 had doubted it. Before such a revenge our cautious 
 English sense of duty must stand penitent and uncovered. 
 Yet it is some comfort to remember that, if the Indian 
 Government has at times committed grave mistakes, it 
 has not forgotten amply to redress them. 
 
 The private history of Ja’far, scrivener in the market 
 town of Thaneswar, is full of interest. Born in a very 
 
88 
 
 TRIAL OF 1864 ; THE SCRIVENER. 
 
 humble rank, he raised himself by force of character to 
 Headman 1 of his township. One day he chanced to stop 
 and listen to the discourse of an itinerant Wahabi preacher. 
 The religious feelings of the prosperous townsman were 
 awakened. He pondered upon the corrupted ceremonial 
 of the mosques, and after passing through a deep spiritual 
 darkness, not unlike that which John Bunyan experienced, 
 he openly professed himself a Wahabi, and threw his whole 
 nature into the work of religious reform. 
 
 The new convert devoted much time to self-examina- 
 tion, and rigidly kept account with his soul. He began 
 to write his religious experiences ; and these, under the 
 title of the Counsels of Ja’far, form one of the most inte- 
 resting documents ever filed in a State Trial. 
 
 1 I commence writing this book on Tuesday, 18th 
 Zulhijja, 1278 Hijra. 2 The completion is in the hand of 
 God. I have not followed any particular method, but 
 simply note down the events, both relating to the Faith 
 and to the world, in which I have from time to time 
 taken part. I further wish to make known that this 
 world is transitory. Man, genie, angel, beast, tree, what- 
 soever has had its origin in it, shall perish each at its 
 appointed time. None but God remains eternal. Who- 
 ever has come into the world, had he lived for 1000 years, 
 has carried nothing away with him but remorse. My own 
 state is as follows. Up to ten years of age I received no 
 education. On my father’s death, when I was about ten 
 or twelve, and my younger brother only six months, I 
 came under the guardianship of my mother, who was 
 quite uneducated, and whose religious training had been 
 
 1 Lambardar, or Fiscal Representative of the township, in dealing with the 
 officers of Government. 
 
 2 June 1862. 
 
TRIAL OF 1864; THE SCRIVENER. 89 
 
 neglected. As a boy I took no thought of learning, and 
 used to wander about as a vagabond ; but when I got a 
 little sense, I commenced reading. 
 
 4 Associating myself with the Petition- writers in 1856, 
 it came to pass that all the Pleaders and Petition-writers 
 consulted me as to the Rules, Regulations, and Acts of 
 the Legislature, and I came to be above them all.’ Petition- 
 writers were a sort of unregistered pettifoggers, who wrote 
 out the plaints of suitors in the Magistrate’s Court, at a 
 fee varying from sixpence to two shillings. Ja’far had a 
 large practice, but the money thus gained in the Infidel’s 
 Court seemed to do him no good ; 4 on the contrary, by 
 this profession I obtained great injury to my faith. It is 
 not well to follow this calling. Had I not adopted it, my 
 religious state would have been much better. My mode 
 of livelihood has been detrimental to me in regard to the 
 pleasures of worshipping and of high piety. When I had 
 leisure from the Courts, even for a couple of days, my 
 state became good. The mere contact with the Musal- 
 man employes of the Unbeliever, which was the drawback 
 attending my position, acted as poison on my soul.’ 
 
 J a’ far’s legal reputation spread notwithstanding 1 1 is 
 dislike of the profession, and he was retained as family 
 adviser by some of the powerful landholders in the neigh- 
 bourhood. He seems to have been a singularly sincere 
 man, never allowing his temporal success to interfere 
 with his eternal interests. Every one who came near 
 him owned his influence, and, like Muhammad, he began 
 by converting his own household. One of these, his clerk, 
 remained faithful to his master in his direst extremity, 
 and stood by his side as a fellow-witness to the Faith in 
 the dock of the Sessions Court at Ambdlla. 
 
 When the mutiny of 1857 broke out, Ja’far chose 
 
9 ° 
 
 TRIAL OF 1864; THE CHIEF PRIEST 
 
 twelve of his most trustworthy disciples, and repaired to 
 the Rebel Camp. Even in the unwonted work of fighting 
 his force of character made him conspicuous, and he gained 
 the reputation of being a man fit to be trusted with trea- 
 sonable secrets. Upon the downfall of the rebel hopes at 
 Dehli, he returned to his attorney’s business at Thfines- 
 war, brooding over the inscrutable decree of Providence 
 which had given victory to the Unbelievers, and more 
 than ever discontented with what he calls ‘ this exceed- 
 ingly dirty business of Petition-writing.’ Open force had 
 failed, and it remained to be seen what could be effected 
 by secret conspiracy. Ja’far soon became a member of 
 the widespread Wahabi confederacy. His secret duties 
 threw a religious halo even over his detested profession ; 
 for ‘ be it known,’ he writes at this period, ‘ I do this by 
 order of a Certain Person, and for a Hidden Object.’ 1 
 
 This Certain Person was Maulavi Yahya AH of 
 Patna, Spiritual Director of the Wahabi sect in India. 
 The Hidden Object was the forwarding of recruits and 
 munitions of war to the Wahabi colony on the M ah fib an, 
 then in open hostilities against the British Crown. 
 
 I have already described the Patna Propaganda, of 
 which Yahya AH was then the head. Long before the trial 
 of 1864 the place had been known throughout India as a 
 hospice of the reformed sect. The buildings lay on the left 
 hand side of the Sadikpur Lane, with a considerable front- 
 age, and ran back some distance from the street. Their 
 exteriors had that mournful dilapidated look w T hich the 
 brick and stucco buildings of India assume after the first 
 
 1 Sir Herbert Edwardes, in delivering sentence, thus summed up Ja'far’s 
 character : — ‘ It is impossible to exceed the bitter hostility, treasonable activity, 
 and mischievous ability of this prisoner. He is an educated man, and a Head- 
 man in his village. There is no doubt of his guilt, and no palliation of it.’ — 
 Eecord of the Amballa State Trial in 1864 ; Official Papers. 
 
TRIAL OF 1864; THE CHIEF PRIEST. 
 
 9i 
 
 wet season, and which presents such a squalid contrast 
 to our preconceptions of the gorgeous East. The most 
 important edifice of the group was a very plain mosque, 
 in which public prayer was offered up each hour of the 
 day, and a khotba or sermon every Friday. These Friday 
 lectures were vehement harangues, insisting above all on 
 the duty of War against the Infidel, but also exposing the 
 inefficacy of works without faith, warning the hearers of 
 their great spiritual danger, and urging them to cultivate 
 the Inward Life. They contrasted the simple worship of 
 the Prophet with the cumbrous ritual, the endless mum- 
 meries, bowings, and genuflexions of the mosques, and 
 bitterly inveighed against those who refused to accept 
 the Wahdbi alternative of Insurrection or Flight. 
 
 Generally speaking, they inculcated a spiritual stand- 
 ard much higher than ordinary natures are capable of ; and 
 the hearers, although deeply impressed at the moment, 
 carried away only a permanent recollection of havifig been 
 rendered exceedingly uncomfortable. The preachers of 
 some of the other city mosques, moreover, while forced to 
 acknowledge the learning and eloquence of the Sadikpur 
 Lane preachers, denounced them as rejecters of holy sacra- 
 ments and Unitarian schismatics. 
 
 Yalij’a All, Chief Priest and Khalff, ruled over the 
 Propaganda with a firm but gentle hand. The recruits 
 whom the itinerant missionaries sent up in flocks from the 
 Districts of Lower Bengal he kindly received at the hospice. 
 The better sort of them he carefully trained up as preachers, 
 while those destined immediately for the Rebel Camp 
 were handed over to a lay brother, who fanned their zeal 
 for the conflict without troubling them very much with 
 matters of doctrine. This lay brother 1 was the bursar of 
 
 1 Abd-ul-ghaffdr. 
 
9 2 
 
 TRIAL OF 1S64; THE CHIEF PRIEST 
 
 the Propaganda, and a most useful man. Not less expert 
 than Chaucer’s ‘ gentil manciple,’ he managed the whole 
 temporal affairs of the hospice, daily harangued the recruits 
 on the high duty of Holy War, and even delivered occa- 
 sional prelections on divinity to the theological students, 
 when the Chief Priest, under whose care they properly 
 fell, was otherwise engaged. What he did, he did with 
 perfect sincerity of heart, and at the last stood undaunted 
 by his master’s side in the dock at Amballa. 
 
 The Chief Priest, Yahya All, had many duties. He 
 corresponded with all the itinerant preachers as Spiritual 
 Director of the sect in India. He organised and person- 
 ally worked a complicated system of drafts in a secret 
 language, by which he safely transmitted large sums 
 from the centre of the Empire to the Rebel Camp beyond 
 the Frontier. He conducted the public ministrations in 
 the mosque. He examined and passed the rifles for the 
 Fanatic Host, delivered a course of divinity lectures to 
 the students, and by private study acquired an intimate 
 acquaintance with the Arabic Fathers. 
 
 But the most delicate operation of the conspirators 
 was the transmission of recruits from the Patna Propa- 
 ganda, or Little Warehouse, as it was called in their secret 
 language, to the Great Warehouse or Rebel Camp beyond 
 the Frontier. The Bengali convert was liable to a hundred 
 awkward questions en route. He had to march nearly two 
 thousand miles across the wide provinces of the North- 
 West and the Panjab, where in every village his physical 
 appearance and language stamped him as a foreigner. It 
 was in this dangerous work that Yahya All’s genius for 
 administration most fully developed itself. He organised 
 a system of Wahabi hospices along the route, and placed 
 each under the charge of a proven disciple. He thus 
 
TRIAL OF 1864; THE CHIEF PRIEST 
 
 93 
 
 divided the Great North Road into convenient sections, and 
 the traitors 011 their way to the Rebel Camp journeyed in 
 safety through strange Provinces, in the full assurance 
 that at the end of each stage there were friends upon the 
 look-out for their arrival. The heads of the wayside hos- 
 pices were men of diverse ranks of life, but all devoted to 
 the overthrow of the British Rule, and each the president 
 of a local committee of conspirators. Yahya All showed 
 an admirable knowledge of character in selecting these 
 men, for neither fear of detection nor hope of reward 
 induced a single one of them to appear against their 
 leader in the hour of his fall. 
 
 Above all, he was a man of good birth, and kept 
 things smooth with the British authorities at Patna. One 
 of his family held an honorary post under our Govern- 
 ment, while another led the Fanatic Host in its raids 
 upon our Frontier. Seldom have more impressive words 
 been uttered in a Court of Justice than those in which 
 Sir Herbert Edwardes passed sentence of death upon 
 this man : — 
 
 1 It is proved,’ he said, ‘ against the prisoner Yahya 
 All, that he has been the mainspring of the great treason 
 which this trial has laid bare. He has been the religious 
 preacher, spreading from his mosque at Patna, under the 
 most solemn sanctions, the hateful principles of the Cres- 
 centade. He has enlisted subordinate Agents to collect 
 money and preach the Moslem Jihad (War against the 
 Infidel). He has deluded hundreds and thousands of his 
 countrymen into treason and rebellion. He has plunged 
 the Government of British India, by his intrigues, into a 
 Frontier War, which has cost hundreds of lives. He is a 
 highly educated man, who can plead no excuse of igno- 
 rance. What he has done, he has done with forethought, 
 
 
94 TRIAL OF 1864; THE ARMY CONTRACTOR. 
 
 resolution, and the bitterest treason. He belongs to a 
 hereditarily disloyal and fanatical family. He aspires to 
 the merit of a religious reformer ; but instead of appeal- 
 ing to reason and to conscience, like his Hindu fellow- 
 countrymen in Bengal, of the Brahma Samaj, he seeks 
 his end in political revolution, and madly plots against 
 the Government, which probably saved the Muhamma- 
 dans of India from extinction, and certainly brought in 
 religious freedom.’ 
 
 Ja’far the Scrivener, and Yahya All the Chief 
 Priest, have claimed the first place among the prisoners 
 of 1864, as the two religious heads of the Conspiracy. 
 But even their talents for treason pale before those of 
 Muhammad Shall, wholesale butcher in Dehli, and meat 
 supplier to the British Forces in the Panjab. This 
 man was the son of one of the great trading houses 
 of Northern India. The origin of his family’s connection 
 with Government takes us back to the wars of Warren 
 Hastings and Lord Cornwallis. Muhammad’s great- 
 grandfather and grandfather were humble graziers, who, 
 partly by speculation, partly by rigid economy, raised 
 themselves considerably in the world. It was a period 
 better fitted for making fortunes than for keeping them. 
 War prices ruled, and the armies, constantly in motion, 
 compelled our Commissariat to seek the acquaintance of 
 the cattle-contractors of Northern India. It is possible 
 that the family fortunes of the traitor owed their rise to 
 the great famine of 1769, which first awakened the people 
 of England to their responsibilities in India. During 
 the last decades of the century, I find the grandfather in 
 a highly responsible position, executing heavy contracts to 
 the perfect satisfaction of the officers in charge of the 
 Commissariat. Muhammad’s father greatly enlarged the 
 
TRIAL OF 1864; THE ARMY CONTRACTOR. 95 
 
 scope of these transactions. Besides the money required 
 for advances to the smaller cattle-breeders, he had a 
 surplus capital which he lent out on the safest securities, 
 and at the highest interest. His son succeeded to a vast 
 fortune, but true to the Indian instinct of following his 
 father’s craft, he devoted himself with energy to the 
 family trades ; and it was as a great banker and wholesale 
 butcher that he carried on the nefarious operations which 
 landed him in the condemned cell at Ambdlla. 
 
 As the Chief Priest was the head, so this man w T as 
 the right hand of the Conspiracy. 
 
 He had agencies in all the chief cities of Hindus- 
 tan, and held the meat contracts for the seven chief 
 British Cantonments along the Great North Hoad. Con- 
 nected by blood or by commercial ties with the richest 
 trading houses of the Panjab, he formed the centre of 
 an ever-widening circle of dependants, spread all over 
 Upper India ; and his business brought him into contact 
 with the shepherd tribes far beyond our frontier. He 
 yearly received many hundred thousand pounds from the 
 British Government ;• in his dealings he was punctual, 
 and obedient to servility ; and he so hoodwunked the 
 Commissariat Officers, that he obtained a renewal of his 
 meat contracts for the troops, even after he had been 
 charged with treason to the Queen. 
 
 The widespread influence which he thus acquired as 
 our servant, he applied to our destruction. He was the 
 banker of the Conspiracy, and skilfully used the con- 
 veniences for transferring money, which Government 
 granted to him as an Army Contractor, to aid and 
 succour the Rebel Camp. He had nothing of the 
 religious enthusiast about him. He allowed 110 foolish 
 fanaticism to lead him into any indiscretion. He was 
 
96 TRIAL OF 1864; THE ARMY CONTRACTOR. 
 
 guilty of no saintly self-sacrifice. He appears through- 
 out the keen, sharp-sighted, sordid schemer, deliberately 
 entering into the most perilous transactions for a corre- 
 spondingly high profit, and trusting to his clear intellect 
 and high position to guide him safe through the dangers 
 which beset his path. 
 
 Ja’far the Scrivener, and Yahya All the Priest, 
 made no pretensions to loyalty, and sought nothing at 
 our hands. Earnest, conscientious men, they pricked 
 themselves with the poisoned weapons which a false 
 religion had put into their hands ; and now that, 
 Laertes-like, they have paid the price of their treachery, 
 history may dwell with emotions almost akin to pity on 
 their fate. But for Muhammad Shaft there can be no 
 such feeling. He licked our hand in order to bite it. 
 He took usury from his fellow-conspirators, and conducted 
 with a safe margin of profit an underwriting business in 
 treasonable risks. He stands out from the band of reli- 
 gionists and minor traitors whom the State Trial of 1864 
 brought together in the Ambdlla dock, as one of those 
 gigantic villains whom the downfall of the Roman Re- 
 public produced, and whom the orations of Cicero have 
 handed down. He combined the heartlessness of Oppi- 
 anicus with the caution of Lentulus ; and his one fatal 
 step w T as in not deserting the pirates before the man-of-war 
 hove in sight. 
 
 I have now sketched the four chief figures 1 in the 
 group of traitors who, day after day, stood together in 
 the Amballa Court. I shall briefly dismiss the other 
 
 1 Yahya Ah', the Chief Priest; Abd-ul-ghaffdr, the bursar of the Propa- 
 ganda at Patna ; Ja’far, the scrivener of Thanes war, who forwarded the recruits 
 through the Panjab ; and Muhammad Sliafi’, the meat supplier to the British 
 Forces, wdio cashed the treasonable remittances, and used his position as an 
 Army Contractor to give information as to the movements of our troops. 
 
TRIAL OF 1864; MINOR TRAITORS. 97 
 
 eight with the words in which the Judge passed sentence 
 upon them : — 
 
 4 It is proved against the prisoner Rahim, that at 
 his house these treasons have been carried on. In his 
 premises the Bengali Crescentaders gathered and were 
 lodged. It was his servant who kept the treasure, fed the 
 recruits, and remitted the subscriptions to the Fanatics ; 
 and it was his brother-in-law, Yahya All, who preached 
 treason at the door of his zenana. His ability is inferior 
 to Yahya All’s, and he is not so conspicuous ; hut he has 
 done what in him lay against the State. 
 
 ‘ It is proved against Ilalii Baksh, that he has been 
 the channel through which the Patna Maulavis forwarded 
 the funds they collected up-country to Ja’far at Thanes- 
 war, to be passed on to Malka and Sittana. 
 
 ‘ It is proved against Husaini of Patna, that he is a 
 servant of Ilalii Baksh ; that he has been employed by 
 him in effecting remittances for treasonable purposes ; 
 that a large sum of gold muhars was received by him 
 from Abd-ul-Ghaflar, under order from Yahya All ; that 
 he sewed them up in a jacket, and so brought them up- 
 country from Patna to Dehli, where he delivered them, as 
 he had been ordered, to the prisoner Ja’far. It is also 
 proved that he carried up money orders for Rs. 6000, and 
 that he thoroughly understood the treasonable nature of 
 the service on which he was engaged. 
 
 ‘It is proved against Kazi Miyan J an, that he 
 preached and recruited for the Crescentade in Bengal, and 
 that he has been an active agent for the Patna conspirators 
 and the fanatics in the hills, collecting and remitting funds, 
 forwarding letters, etc. The most treasonable correspond- 
 ence has been found in his house, from both Patna and. 
 Malkd, showing also that he had three or four aliases. 
 
 G 
 
9 8 
 
 TRIAL OF 1864; MINOR TRAITORS. 
 
 1 It is proved against Abd-ul-Karim that he was the 
 confidential agent of Muhammad Shafi’ (the meat supplier) 
 in cashing the Patna money orders for treasonable 
 purposes, and that he was in communication with Yahya 
 All concerning these purposes. 
 
 1 It is proved against the prisoner Husaini of Thhnes- 
 war that he was a confidential agent and go-between of 
 the prisoners Muhammad Ja’far and Muhammad Shafi’ in 
 these treasons, and that he was seized in the act of convey- 
 ing 290 pieces of gold 1 from Ja’far to Muhammad Shafi’ 
 for remittance to the Queen’s enemies. 
 
 ‘It is proved against Abd-ul-Ghaffar, No. 2, 2 that he 
 was a disciple of Yahya All at Patna; that Yahya AH 
 deputed him to be the assistant of the prisoner Ja’far 
 in the rebel recruiting depot at Thaneswar ; that he did 
 so assist, and that he corresponded with the prisoner 
 Yahya AH on treasonable matters.’ 3 
 
 The three most conspicuous features of the conspiracy 
 which the trial disclosed, were the admirable sagacity 
 with which so widely spread a treason had been organised ; 
 the secrecy with which its complicated operations were 
 conducted ; and the absolute fidelity to one another 
 which its members maintained. Its success depended to 
 some extent upon an ingenious system of aliases , and upon 
 the secret language of which I give a specimen below. 4 
 But it is impossible to resist the conviction that the 
 
 1 Gold Muhars. 
 
 2 This was another man of the same name as the Abd-ul-Ghaffdr already 
 mentioned. 
 
 3 In this account of the Trial of 1864, I have in some places used an article 
 which I put forth at the time, 1864. All the statements are based upon the 
 Certified Record of the Case, upon Letters from the Local Authorities, or upon 
 Official Reports. 
 
 4 A battle is called a lawsuit ; God, the Law Agent ; Gold Muhars are 
 called large red rubies, large Dehli gold-embroidered shoes, or large red birds ; 
 
THE LEVIES CONTINUED, 1864 - 68 . 
 
 99 
 
 conspirators, with the exception of the army contractor, 
 were actuated by a conscientious zeal for what they be- 
 lieved to be the cause of God, and by a firm resolve to 
 abide stedfast to the death. The British authorities took 
 the wise revenge of denying even to the most treasonable 
 of them the glory of martyrdom. The highest Court of 
 the Province, after a patient hearing in appeal, confirmed 
 Sir Herbert Edwardes’ finding as to their guilt, but modi- 
 fied the capital sentence even in the three most flagrant 
 cases to transportation for life. 1 
 
 The State Trial of 1864 proved as little effective as 
 the retributive campaign of 1863 to check the zeal of the 
 traitors. Their internal dissensions kept them quiet for a 
 few years on the Frontier, but meanwhile they vigorously 
 preached the Holy War within our territory. In Eastern 
 Bengal, every District was tainted with the treason ; and 
 the Muhammadan peasantry down the whole course of the 
 Ganges, from Patna to the sea, laid apart weekly offerings 
 in aid of the Rebel Camp. What proportion of these 
 oblations actually reached the Frontier is doubtful ; and 
 as the difficulties of transmission increased, the preachers 
 seem to have felt justified in helping themselves more 
 liberally than their earlier zeal would have permitted. 
 The fanatical Musalmans of the Delta bear the name not 
 of Wahabis, but of Fardizis, 2 or rejecters of all glosses and 
 non-essential parts of Islam. They call themselves the 
 
 remittances in Gold Muhars are spoken of as rosaries of red beads, and remit- 
 tances in money as the price of books and merchandise ; drafts or money 
 orders are called white stones, the amount being intimated by the number of 
 white beads as on a rosary .—Official Papers. 
 
 1 Paras. 182-184 of the Judgment in Appeal by the Judicial Commissioner 
 of the Panjab, dated 24th August 1864. 
 
 2 Faraizis (from the Arabic Farizah , plural Faraiz , the same as Farz) are 
 those who admit the obligation of only the first two of the five Muhammadan 
 duties, and reject the other three as not based upon the Kuran or the Hadis. 
 These five sorts of religious commands are : (1st) Farz (hence Fardizf), the 
 
IOO 
 
 COSTLINESS OF THE CONSPIRACY. 
 
 New Musalmans, and muster in vast numbers in the Dis- 
 tricts east of Calcutta. We have already seen how, in 
 1831, a merely local leader got together between three 
 and four thousand men, beat back a detachment of the 
 Calcutta Militia, and was only put down by regular troops. 
 In 1843 the sect had attained such dangerous proportions 
 as to form a subject of special inquiry by Government. 
 The head of the Bengal Police reported that a single one 
 of their preachers had gathered together some eighty 
 thousand followers, who asserted complete equality among 
 themselves, looked upon the cause of each as that of the 
 whole sect, and considered nothing criminal if done in 
 behalf of a brother in distress. 1 The later Khalifs, 
 especially Yahya All, amalgamated the Faraizis of Lower 
 Bengal with the Wahdbis of Northern India ; and during 
 the past thirteen years they have been found side by side 
 alike among the dead on the field of battle, and in the 
 dock of our Courts of Justice. 
 
 From 1864 to 1868 the levies of money and men 
 went on as before, and a special establishment had to be 
 organised to deal with the conspiracy. At this moment 
 the cost of watching the Wahdbis, and keeping them 
 within bounds, amounts in a single Province to as much 
 as would suffice for the Administration, Judicial and 
 Criminal, of a British District containing one-third of the 
 whole population of Scotland. The evil had so widely 
 
 rejection of which makes a man an infidel ; (2d) Wajib, the rejection of which 
 makes a man a sinful Musalman ; (3d) Sunnat, which, if not performed, bring 
 down God’s anger or threat (7 tab ) ; (4th) Mustahabb, the non-fulfilment of 
 which involves no punishment, but which if performed produce religious merit 
 and reward, e.g. vows ; (5th) Mubah, the performance of which is indifferent. 
 The Faraizis now claim as their founder, not Titu Miydn, but Sbarkat-ullah, 
 who preached in Dacca in 1828. 
 
 1 Letters, No. 1001, dated 13th May 1843, and No. 50 of 1847, from the 
 Commissioner of Police for Bengal, etc. 
 
COSTLINESS OF THE CONSPIRACY. 
 
 iot 
 
 diffused itself, that it was difficult to know where to 
 begin. Each District-Centre spreads disaffection through 
 thousands of families ; but the only possible witnesses 
 against him are his own converts, who would prefer death 
 to the betrayal of their master. 
 
 In 1868, notwithstanding the exertions of the Police 
 within our territory, and of the military outposts on the 
 Frontier, the fanatic intrigues again involved the Empire 
 in a costly campaign. In the same year the Maldah 
 Head-Centre fearlessly brought down the son of the Patna 
 Khalif to preach treason in the heart of Bengal. The 
 ordinary action of the Courts proved altogether inade- 
 quate to the crisis, and the Government had to have 
 recourse to the special procedure which had been en- 
 trusted to it to meet such cases. As far back as 1818, 
 the Legislature formally recognised the perils to which a 
 Government, composed like our own of a small body of 
 foreigners, is perpetually subject from the overwhelming 
 masses of the conquered population. It accordingly 
 vested the Executive with the power of arrest in times 
 of conspiracy. A national peril of this sort would be 
 met in England by a suspension of the Habeas Corpus 
 Act, but such a suspension in India would be a calamity 
 little less terrible than making over the country to Martial 
 Law. In the present instance, for example, it is only 
 a single sect of the Musalmdns who are to blame ; and 
 the Musalman community, although very numerous in 
 Eastern Bengal, forms but one-tenth of the population of 
 India. If any Act corresponding to a general suspension 
 of the Habeas Corpus Act were passed, the Hindus would 
 justly complain that they, the real natives of the country, 
 were made to suffer for the disloyalty of their deadliest 
 enemies, the Muhammadans. Indeed, even among the 
 
102 
 
 HABEAS CORPUS SUSPENDED, 1868. 
 
 Musalmans themselves, there would be indignant pro- 
 tests by the Sunni and Shiah sects against being placed 
 under a common ban with the Wahabi schismatics. 
 
 The injustice would be intensified by an influence, 
 happily unknown in England, but rampant in India. The 
 Bengali, whether rich or poor, wreaks his malice on a 
 rival, and seeks his revenge against an enemy, not by 
 inconsiderate violence, but by due course of law. He uses 
 the Courts for the same purpose for which an Englishman 
 employs a horse-whip, or a Californian his bowfie-knife. 
 A criminal prosecution is the correct form for inflicting 
 personal chastisement, and a general suspension of, in 
 India, what corresponds to the Habeas Corpus Act would 
 place every man at the mercy of his enemies. The Police 
 Returns in India disclose an overwhelming proportion of 
 false complaints to true ones, and the Bengali has reduced 
 the rather perilous business of making out a primd facie 
 Case to an exact science. A formal interference with 
 the right of Habeas Corpus would give the signal for a 
 paroxysm of perjury. The innocent would live in constant 
 fear of being thrown into prison, and kept there on false 
 charges of treason ; the revengeful and malicious would 
 enjoy a perpetual triumph. 
 
 Yet, without a power of arrest in time of sedition, 
 similar to that with which the suspension of the Habeas 
 Corpus arms the Queen’s Ministers in England, the British 
 Rule in India would not be safe a month. The Legislature 
 has therefore entrusted a modified power of this sort to 
 the Executive as one of its permanent prerogatives, but 
 has carefully fenced it round so as to prevent the chance 
 of abuse. Only the Supreme Government can exercise it 
 at all, and the Supreme Government only by a formal 
 act of the Governor-General in Council. The preamble 
 
HABEAS CORPUS SUSPENDED. 
 
 I0 3 
 
 further limits its application to purely political cases, 
 affecting ‘ the clue maintenance of the Alliances formed 
 by the British Government with foreign powers, the pre- 
 servation of tranquillity in the territories of native princes 
 entitled to its protection, and the security of the British 
 Dominions from foreign hostility and from internal com- 
 motion.’ 1 Special provision is made for the good treat- 
 ment of such prisoners. The law carefully demarcates 
 their status from that of convicted persons, and terms 
 their confinement not imprisonment, hut ‘ personal re- 
 straint.’ They enjoy an allowance from the Government. 
 They have liberty to forward any representation or 
 petition to the Governor-General in Council direct . 2 The 
 officer in charge of such a State prisoner is bound to 
 report to the head of the Government, whether the degree 
 of confinement is such as might injure his health, and 
 whether his allowance is adequate to support himself and 
 his family, 1 according to their rank in life.’ 3 i His property 
 generally remains in his own hands or those of his family. 
 But if Government finds it necessary to take charge of 
 his estates, they are exempted from sale, whether in 
 satisfaction of the demands of the land revenue or of the 
 decrees of the Civil Court. They receive, in fact, all the 
 protection accorded to property under the Court of Wards. 
 The law takes ample precaution to prevent anything like 
 an unnecessarily prolonged restraint. Every officer in 
 charge of a State prisoner arrested by the Executive 
 must report twice a year to the Head of the Govern- 
 ment direct, ‘ on the conduct, the health, and the comfort of 
 such State prisoner, in order that the Governor- General 
 
 1 Regulation III. of 1818, Clause I. 
 
 2 Idem, Clause V. 
 
 3 Idem, Clause VI. 
 
104 HABEAS CORPUS SUSPENDED. 
 
 in Council may determine whether the orders for his 
 detention shall continue in force, or shall be modified.’ 1 
 
 There can be little doubt that, had this Act been 
 applied to the confederacy which the Campaign of 1858 
 and the subsequent inquiries disclosed, British India 
 would have been spared the disastrous Frontier War of 
 1863. A few well-aimed arrests would have saved us 
 nearly a thousand soldiers killed or wounded in the 
 Ambeyla Pass, and many hundred thousand pounds. 
 Even after that calamitous war, if the conspiracy which 
 the State Trial of 1864 brought to light had been broken 
 up by a vigorous use of the power of arrest by the Execu- 
 tive, we should in all probability have been spared the 
 Campaign on the Black Mountain in 1868. But for 
 reasons which I have dwelt on elsewhere, 2 the Indian 
 Government is traditionally loath to recognise the political 
 dangers which environ it, and which from time to time 
 have imperilled its rule. The enormous stake which 
 England has in India, and the millions sterling which 
 British Capitalists have annually invested in railways, 
 canals, and other reproductive works since the country 
 passed under the Crown, would now render even a tem- 
 porary displacement of our authority an appalling calamity. 
 Costly wars on our Frontier, severe judicial sentences 
 within our territory, had alike failed to put down the 
 fanatical confederacy; and in 1868 the Government at 
 length resolved to vigorously enforce its power of arresting 
 the offenders. 
 
 This measure could be carried out without risk of 
 injury to the innocent, and without popular agitation of 
 any sort. Lists of the leading traitors in each District 
 
 1 Regulation III. of 1818, Clause III. 
 
 ■ Annals of Rural Bengal, vol. i. p. 241, 4th ed. 
 
EXTENT OF THE CONSPIRACY. 105 
 
 had for several years been in the hands of the authorities, 
 and the Hindu population looked on their arrest as a 
 thing sooner or later to be expected. The most con- 
 spicuous preachers of sedition were apprehended ; the spell 
 which they had exerted on their followers was broken ; 
 and by degrees a phalanx of testimony was gathered 
 together against those more secret and meaner, although 
 richer, traitors who managed the remittances, and who, 
 like the Army Contractor in the Trial of 1864, carried on 
 a profitable business as underwriters of treasonable risks. 
 
 The last seven years have brought forth five great 
 State Trials in Districts many hundreds of miles apart, 
 but all connected with the self-same conspiracy. Indeed, 
 each case seems inevitably to give rise to a whole crop of 
 others, and it is impossible to unearth a traitor in one 
 Province without coming on subterraneous passages lead- 
 ing to half a dozen nests of treason in distant parts of the 
 country. The evidence recorded in the Amballa Trial of 
 1864, rendered necessary the Patna Trial of 1865 ; and 
 the cumulative facts then disclosed led to a host of new 
 arrests, with the Maldah Trial of September 1870, the 
 Rajmahal Trial in October of the same year, and the 
 great Trial which has just now condemned another batch of 
 Fanatics to transportation for life (1871). I do not wish 
 to stir up popular indignation either against the convicted 
 traitors, or against the numerous unhappy men under 
 surveillance or restraint who have not yet been tried. 
 Such cases are best left to the calm action of the law, 
 and inflammatory incidents taken from the late Trials 
 could do no good. But in order that the reader may 
 understand what a Wah&bi Trial means, how obstinately 
 it is fought out by highly paid English barristers who 
 catch at every quibble or legal straw, and how costly it 
 
io6 
 
 FANATICISM OF THE CONSPIRATORS. 
 
 is to the State, I shall give a few bare facts touching the 
 last one. The preliminary investigation employed the 
 Magistrate’s Court about two months. The subsequent 
 trial before the Sessions’ Judge occupied a month and 
 three weeks, during which the Court sat thirty-eight days, 
 examined 159 witnesses, and went over a vast mass of 
 documentary evidence written in many languages. From 
 the Sessions’ Judge it has now come to the High Court 
 in Calcutta ; and when it will end, or how much more it 
 will cost, no prudent man would venture to predict. 
 
 It may w T ell be imagined how such a Trial, dragging 
 its weary length for close on a whole year, in the midst 
 of a fanatical populace, stirs up the hatred of zealots 
 against our rule. Just before it was coming on in the 
 High Court, a Musalman assassin stabbed the Chief 
 Justice of Bengal on the steps of his own Tribunal. As 
 I write these lines, the passions, both of English and 
 Musalmans, have reached a heat such as has happily 
 been unknown since the Mutinies. Indian society has 
 again grown electric, and it will require no small wisdom 
 and firmness to prevent an explosion. I cannot, however, 
 let this second edition go forth without bearing testimony 
 against anything like an alarmist or sensational mode of 
 dealing with the evil. The Courts of British India are 
 perfectly strong enough to put down the crimes of British 
 India. It may perhaps be deemed expedient to strengthen 
 the powers of arrest already in the hands of the Execu- 
 tive ; but this is a question for calm deliberation by the 
 Legislature, not for rash resolve by an indignant com- 
 munity, still within the shadow of its great and sudden 
 loss. 
 
 Meanwhile these arrests, and the judicial proceedings 
 which followed, have at length aroused the Muhammadans 
 
THE CONSPIRACY CHECKED. 
 
 107 
 
 to the danger which the Fanatic Sect is bringing upon their 
 whole community. They have determined to separate 
 themselves from the schismatical conspiracy by a formal 
 public act. Each section of them has accordingly pub- 
 lished the authoritative Decisions 1 of its Law Doctors on 
 Holy War, and proclaimed its disapproval of the Wahabi 
 sedition. These curious documents form the subject of the 
 next Chapter. The Fanatical Conspiracy itself gives signs 
 of at last breaking down. The most active of its heads are 
 under restraint, and the remainder know that the same 
 fate awaits them if they again make themselves conspi- 
 cuous. But the armed Colony, although insignificant in 
 itself, still survives on the Frontier, and may at any time 
 become the nucleus of a great religious coalition. This 
 very morning 2 on which I finish the present Chapter, an 
 Indian Newspaper generally most trustworthy in its state- 
 ments announces another raid upon the Black Mountain. 
 On the 4th June a tribe came down in force, and burnt 
 three villages, in spite of a stubborn defence by the in- 
 habitants. 3 Within four hours of the news of the out- 
 rage, the 3d Panjab Infantry and a detachment from the 
 4th Panjab Cavalry were on the march from our nearest 
 military station, with what result is not reported. Nor 
 have the causes, whether fanatical or otherwise, yet been 
 ascertained. Only this is known, that for weeks the 
 whole Press of British India has been discussing the 
 probabilities of another Afghan War; and should any 
 such trial be in store for us, it will be no small danger 
 averted if the Wahabi conspiracy within our territory can 
 be first stamped out. 
 
 1 Fatwas. 
 
 2 Simla, June 14, 1871. (First edition.) 
 
 3 Pioneer , June 12, reached Simla, June 14. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE DECISIONS OF THE MUHAMMADAN LAW DOCTORS. 
 
 npiIE Wahabis have not been allowed to spread their 
 network of treason over Bengal without some oppo- 
 sition from their countrymen. Besides the odium theo- 
 logicum which rages between the Muhammadan Sects 
 almost as fiercely as if they were Christians, the presence 
 of Wahabis in a district is a standing menace to all 
 classes, whether Musalman or Hindu, possessed of pro- 
 perty or vested rights. Revolutionists alike in politics 
 and in religion, they go about their work not as reformers 
 of the Luther or Cromwell type, but as destroyers in the 
 spirit of Robespierre or Tanchelin 1 of Antwerp. As the 
 Utrecht clergy raised a cry of terror when the last-named 
 scourge appeared, so every Musalman priest with a dozen 
 acres attached to his mosque or wayside shrine 2 has 
 been shrieking against the Wahabis during the past half 
 century. Between 1813 and 1830 no Wahdbi could 
 walk the streets of Mecca without danger to his life, nor 
 indeed, up to the present hour, without risk of insult and 
 violence. 
 
 1 1 His sect was the one true Church. He was encircled by a body-guard 
 of three thousand armed men ; he was worshipped by the people as an angel, 
 or something higher ; they drank the water in which he had bathed.’ — Milman's 
 History of Latin Christianity, vol. v. p. 389, ed. 1867. 
 
 2 Generally a tomb with a little land, or a mango grove, left in pios usus. 
 
POLITICAL ASPECT OF THE WAHABIS. 
 
 109 
 
 In India, as elsewhere, the landed and clerical in- 
 terests are hound up by a common dread of change. 
 The Muhammadan landholders maintain the cause of the 
 Mosque, precisely as English landholders defend the Estab- 
 lished Church. Any form of Dissent, whether religious 
 or political, is perilous to vested rights. Now the Indian 
 Wahabis are extreme Dissenters in both respects ; Ana- 
 baptists, Fifth Monarchy men, so to speak, touching 
 matters of faith ; Communists and Red Republicans in 
 politics. From the first their hand has fallen heavily on 
 any Muhammadan so criminal as to differ from their 
 views. I 11 1827-30, it was against an obdurate Musal- 
 man Governor of Peshawar, quite as much as against the 
 Hindu Sikhs, that their divine Leader turned his arms. 
 In the peasant rising around Calcutta in 1831, they broke 
 into the houses of Musalmdn and Hindu landholders with 
 perfect impartiality. Indeed, the Muhammadan proprie- 
 tors had rather the worst of it, as the banditti sometimes 
 gave salvation to the daughter of an erring co-religionist 
 by forcibly carrying her off, and appropriating her to one 
 of the robber chiefs. The official description of the Sect, 
 fifteen years afterwards, 1 1 as a gathering of eighty thou- 
 sand men asserting complete equality among themselves, 
 and drawn from the lower classes,’ would make any 
 landed gentry in the world indignantly uncomfortable. 
 
 Nor, indeed, would a religious Jacquerie of this sort 
 find favour with the fundholding community, or with any 
 section of the comfortable classes. In Bengal, however, 
 one entire trade (and a very rich and powerful one) has 
 been steadily on their side. The skinner and leather- 
 worker ranks at the very bottom of the Hindu com- 
 
 1 By Mr. Dampier, Commissioner of Police for Bengal, in letters already 
 cited. 
 
I IO 
 
 THEIR REVOLUTIONARY SPIRIT. 
 
 munity. He lays impious hands on the carcase of the 
 sacred animal, the cow, and profits by its death. He 
 is a man unclean from his birth, an outcast from decent 
 societ} 7 , whom no wealth or success in his detested voca- 
 tion can raise to respectability. This degraded position 
 he accepts like a true Hindu, with an untroubled mind. 
 No exertions can raise him in the social scale ; so he 
 never makes the attempt. No honesty or sobriety could 
 win for him the regard of his neighbours ; so he lives 
 quite happy without it. If the cows belonging to the 
 village die in adequate numbers to supply him with 
 leather, good and well. If they show a reluctance to 
 mortality, he stimulates the too tardy death-rate with a 
 little arsenic. A man of this hopeless sort never rises 
 above petty retail dealings, and the wholesale hide trade 
 (one of the great Indian staples) has thus fallen into the 
 hands of Musalman merchants. The Muhammadan knows 
 nothing of the scruples which so powerfully influence the 
 Hindu with regard to trafficking in the skin of the sacred 
 animal. The Musalman hide-merchants have therefore 
 the monopoly of the export trade, and compose one of the 
 richest classes of the native mercantile community. But 
 they are looked upon with hatred and abhorrence by the 
 Hindus. This detestation they pay back in kind. They 
 well know that if the Brahman ever gets the upper hand 
 for a moment, they will be the first spoil of the Infidel. 
 They accordingly regard the Infidel Hindu as a fair spoil 
 for themselves, and form the wealthiest and most power- 
 ful contributors to the Wahabi sect, whose very raison 
 d'etre is to wage war upon the Unbeliever. 
 
 But it is not to any single class, however rich or 
 powerful, that the Wahabis owe their strength. They ap- 
 peal boldly to the masses ; and their system, whether of 
 
THEIR CONSCIENTIOUS PERSISTENCY. 
 
 hi 
 
 religion or of politics, is eminently adapted to the hopes 
 and fears of a restless populace. Among them, as I have 
 already stated, and again cheerfully declare, are thousands 
 of sincerely pious men, who look upon self-abnegation as 
 the first duty of life. This element leavens the whole 
 lump, and gives a respectability, and almost a sanctity, to 
 the worldly-minded majority. The Wahabi of the nobler 
 sort knows no fear for himself, and no pity for others. 
 His path in life is clear, and neither warnings nor punish- 
 ments can turn him to the right hand or the left. There 
 is at present in one of the Bengal jails a venerable white- 
 haired Musalman, of blameless life in all respects, with 
 the exception of his being a bitterly persistent traitor. 
 For nearly thirty years his treason has been known to the 
 authorities, and he himself has been perfectly aware that 
 his practices were thus known. He was formally warned 
 in 1849, again in 1853, again in 1857, and in 1864 he 
 was publicly called up in Court before the Magistrate to 
 receive a final admonition. To all such counsels he 
 turned a deaf ear, and in 1869 he had to be placed under 
 personal restraint. Such a case is very difficult to deal 
 with. Government naturally shrinks from proceeding to 
 extremities against a man really conscientious and devout 
 according to his lights ; and perhaps all that can be done 
 is to prevent his injuring others by a mild personal 
 restraint. 
 
 The Wahabi vocation is by no means a smooth or 
 an easy calling. In the first place, all who profess the 
 new faith must yearly part with a good deal of money in 
 support of it. For those who take a more active part and 
 join the Camp on the Frontier, a worse fate remains. I 
 have never read anything more piteous than the evidence 
 given by such recruits during the late trials. The summing 
 
I 12 
 
 FATE OF HOLY WAR RECRUITS. 
 
 up of the Judges shows that the Wahabi preachers have 
 drafted away to certain slaughter batch after batch of 
 deluded youths, generally under twenty, and often with- 
 out the consent of their parents, from nearly every Dis- 
 trict of Eastern Bengal. That they have introduced 
 misery and bereavement into thousands of peasant fami- 
 lies, and created a feeling of chronic anxiety throughout 
 the whole rural population, with regard to their most 
 promising young men. No Wahabi father who has a boy 
 of more than usual parts or piety, can tell the moment 
 at which his son may not suddenly disappear from the 
 hamlet. Of the youths thus spirited away, by far the 
 greater portion perish by pestilence, famine, or the sword. 
 The few who return, bring back a firm conviction that 
 they have been used as tools and cast aside when they 
 were no longer required. Here is the story of one of 
 those who suffered least : — ‘ I am a disciple of the Patna 
 Khalff. When I was ten or twelve years of age, I went 
 to Rampur Bauleah (a town in Lower Bengal, not far 
 from the native village of the witness) to study under 
 him. The masters were planning a Holy War, and ar- 
 ranging for sending money and men to support it. When 
 about fifteen years old, I also was sent to join the Holy 
 War. We went by Patna and Dehli (a distance of about 
 two thousand miles to the Frontier Camp). I stayed 
 with the Khalff at Patna for one night. At Dehli my 
 companions went on, but I remained there to study under 
 a religious teacher for a year and a half. Thereafter, a 
 detachment passing through Dehli to join the Frontier 
 Camp, I went with them as far as Gujrat. Some time 
 after, another detachment having arrived, I went with 
 them to the mountains, where I had been assured that 
 the Imdm Sayyid Ahmad had reappeared. I there found 
 
REACTION AGAINST WAHABIS. 
 
 ”3 
 
 between eight and nine thousand men assembled, the 
 leader being the master with whom I had studied as a 
 boy of twelve (and who had now succeeded to the Patna 
 Caliphate). Here I discovered that no Divine Leader 
 had appeared, and that all was a sham. I and others 
 were angry, and returned to Dehli. Afterwards an Arab 
 came to Dehli, who assured us that the Divine Leader 
 had appeared at Sittana, and persuaded me again to go 
 and join the Holy War. When I arrived, I asked about 
 the appearance of the Divine Leader, but could get no 
 answer. I soon discovered that we had been again de- 
 ceived ; and on some British Troops coming to attack us, 
 I escaped to Dehli. Afterwards I returned to my own 
 home .’ 1 
 
 This is the story of a well-cared-for recruit, who in 
 the end came off unhurt. Into the more miserable narra- 
 tives of those who fell victims to pestilence, exposure, or 
 poverty by the way, I do not propose to enter. A single 
 returned Crescentader from the Frontier does more to ruin 
 the Wahabi cause in a District than a State Trial. His 
 presence acts as a perpetual dis-illusionment to the fanati- 
 cal youths who press forward for enlistment, and many 
 even of the really sincere Wahabis have become willing to 
 listen to any interpretation of the law which frees them 
 from the obligation to rebel. 
 
 Such interpretations have fallen on Bengal thick as 
 Autumn leaves during the past few years. The Wahdbi 
 preachers, not content with swaying the fanatical masses, 
 attempted to bind the burden of Holy War upon the 
 shoulders of all ranks of their countrymen. Now it is a 
 
 1 Abridged from the evidence of Muhammad Abbas Ah' before the Judge 
 of Dinajpur, 15th August 1870. I have avoided as much as possible the use of 
 proper names. 
 
 II 
 
THE LEGAL DECLSLONS (FA TWA S). 
 
 114 
 
 very trying position for a man in easy circumstances to 
 be compelled either to join in a dangerous conspiracy 
 or to be denounced as an Apostate. For a time it was 
 possible to contribute without much personal danger ; but 
 since the enforcement of the power of arrest by the Exe- 
 cutive, abetment of rebellion has become a perilous game, 
 of which only the more bigoted consent to take the risks. 
 Subscriptions from wealthy widows have come in more 
 sparingly, and men with a stake in the country shirk 
 giving money for the Holy War at the Mosques. On the 
 other hand, the more fanatical of the sect have blazed up 
 in denunciations against those who, from fear of an Infidel 
 Government, have abandoned the cause of the Faith. 
 They stigmatize the deserters as cowardly and self-seek- 
 ing, and indignantly reject the Laodicasan casuistry by 
 which the comfortable classes strive to serve both God 
 and the World. 
 
 For a time the well-to-do Muhammadans bore these 
 reproaches in silence. But they had the whole vested 
 interests of the Musalman clergy to back them, and by 
 degrees drew out a learned array to defend their position. 
 They began to contest the Wahabi doctrine of Holy War 
 on first principles, and to deny that they were under any 
 obligation to wage war against the Queen. During the 
 past few years, a whole phalanx of Fativas or Authori- 
 tative Decisions have appeared on this side. Even the 
 three great High Priests 1 at Mecca have been enlisted to 
 liberate the Indian Musalmans from the dangerous duty 
 of rebelling against an English Queen. 
 
 To arrive at this satisfactory result demanded no 
 
 1 The Mufti of the Hanaff sect, the Mufti of the ShafiT sect, and the 
 Mufti of the Malikf sect. The fourth orthodox sect, the Hanbalf, are few in 
 number in Mecca, and have no Mufti there. 
 
THE PRECEPTS OF THE HER AH. 115 
 
 small amount of lawyer-like acumen. The plain meaning 
 of the Kurdn is, that the followers of Islam shall reduce 
 the whole earth to obedience, giving to the conquered the 
 choice of conversion, of a submission almost amounting to 
 slavery, or of death. The Kurdn was written, however, to 
 suit, not the exigencies of a modern nation, but the local 
 necessities of a warring Arabian tribe in its successive 
 vicissitudes as a persecuted, an aggressive, and a trium- 
 phant sect. The rugged hostility and fanaticism of the 
 Kurdn have been smoothed down by many generations 
 of scholiasts and interpreters ; and from its one-sided, 
 passionate bigotry, a not unsymmetrical system of civil 
 polity has been evolved. Many of the Prophet’s precepts 
 on Holy War have, however, found their way unaltered 
 into the formulated Muhammadan Law. The great Indian 
 text-book, the Hiddyah, devotes a special chapter to the 
 duty and incidents of waging war against the Infidel, and 
 this necessity has been strongly insisted upon by the 
 chief Indian Doctors of Muhammadan Law. But in the 
 discussions which have lately agitated the Musalmans, 
 very little has been said about the Kurdn ; and all parties 
 have by tacit consent removed the question from the text 
 of the sacred book to the jurisdiction of the Canon Law, 
 which has been based upon it. 
 
 It is a matter of congratulation, both for the Musal- 
 mdns and ourselves, that these Decisions have been on 
 the side of peace and loyalt}^. It is scarcely possible to 
 exaggerate the dangers which might have resulted had 
 these Fatwcis been in favour of rebellion. The mere fact 
 of the question having been raised at all, reveals the 
 perilous ground upon which our supremacy in India is 
 based : for it should never be forgotten that such Deci- 
 sions, when opposed to the Government, have given rise 
 
1 1 6 PERILS OF AN AD VERSE FA TWA. 
 
 to some of the most obstinate and bloody revolts that the 
 world has seen. Even Akbar was nearly burled from the 
 height of his power by a Decision of the Jaunpur lawyers 
 declaring that rebellion against him was lawful. The 
 great military revolt in Bengal followed, and from that 
 time several of the landholders in the Lower Provinces 
 had to be treated as feudatories rather than as subjects. 
 During the Mutinies of 1857, the first act of a Musal- 
 man rebel, when he proclaimed the Dehli Rule in a 
 city, was to call on some Muhammadan local saint for 
 a Fativa declaring Holy War against the English. In 
 Europe, whenever the Porte wished to hurl its hordes 
 against Bulgaria or other of the Christian Provinces lying 
 on the Austrian Frontier, it heated the fanaticism of its 
 troops to the proper warmth by a Decision of the Law 
 Doctors on the duty and rewards of War against the 
 Infidel. We Christians did much the same thing, and the 
 flagging zeal of the Holy Roman Empire was lashed into 
 activity by a very similar set of stimulants during the later 
 Crusades. In Muhammadan countries, such religious 
 declarations in favour of exterminating those who differ 
 in faith occupy the rank of high Legal Decisions, and 
 collections of them were easily procurable in Constan- 
 tinople when I was there in 1867. In more recent times, 
 both the Pasha of Egypt and the Sultan of Turkey him- 
 self have been forced into disastrous hostilities against 
 religious insurgents who believed that the Commander 
 of the Faithful had departed from the sacred law, and 
 that it was their duty to destroy the apostate and his 
 armies. It is an auspicious circumstance, therefore, that 
 the very District 1 which levelled the Fatwa of rebellion 
 against the greatest Musalmdn monarch whom India pro- 
 
 1 Jaunpur. 
 
THE SHIAH VIEW, 1871 . 
 
 1 17 
 
 duced, has also furnished the Law Doctor whose Decision 
 is most strongly opposed to waging war against the 
 British Power . 1 
 
 I propose briefly to state the various solutions of the 
 question at which the two recognised Musalmdn Sects, 
 the Shias and Sunnis, have within the past few months 
 arrived. 
 
 The Shias take up a ground of their own touching 
 the duty of the Faithful to wage war against the Queen, 
 as they do on all other points. It is the view of a sect 
 who have never been very numerous in India, and who 
 have been accustomed to persecutions under the orthodox 
 Muhammadan Governments such as no British ruler 
 would sanction. The little Persian Pamphlet 2 which 
 they put forth some time ago on the subject of Holy War, 
 would carry no weight with the Sunnis, who form nine- 
 tenths of the Muhammadans in India. But as the autho- 
 ritative declaration of a distinguished Doctor of the Shiah 
 Law, in consultation with the chief authorities among his 
 sect, including a great spiritual functionary of the ex- 
 King of Oudli, it deserves a notice. The Shias, although 
 not a numerous body, have contributed some of the 
 greatest names to the history of India ; and in the discus- 
 sion regarding the duty of rebellion which has been going 
 on in every District during the last four years, they have 
 made themselves distinctly heard. 
 
 The key-note to the Shiah faith is the belief in the 
 twelve Imams, an inspired Apostolic descent from the 
 Prophet of God. One Imdm yet remains to complete the 
 august line, but is at present hidden away from sinful 
 
 1 Maulavf Karamat Ah', in a Lecture delivered before the Muhammadan 
 Literary Society of Calcutta, 23d November 1870. 
 
 2 ‘ On the word Jihad as it is understood and believed by the Shiah Sect,’ 
 by Munshi Amir Alf Khan Bahadur. Calcutta, 1871. 
 
1 1 8 THE SHIAH DECISION (FA TWA), 1871. 
 
 mortals. Till his appearance the world travailetli and 
 goeth in pain, and the Faithful suffer tribulation at the 
 hands of heretical Sunnis, Christians, and others. But 
 there will come a great Epiphany or shining forth of the 
 Promised One, when all wrongs shall be righted, and all 
 men converted to the true knowledge of God. Till then, 
 the Shiah tract argues that it would be vain to attempt 
 by mortal efforts, or rebellions, or wars, to bring about 
 that great consummation. It denounces as schismatics 
 all who disagree with this view. ‘ Now-a-days, such of 
 the depraved and seditious as are ignorant of the precepts 
 of Muhammad 1 and strangers to truth, with vain desires 
 improperly indulge in foolish talk about the meaning and 
 duty of Holy War.’ ‘ In this country, Hindustan, only 
 two sects among the followers of Islam have proved ortho- 
 dox — the Shias and Sunnis. The remaining tribes of 
 Musalmans, whether they belong to the sect of Wah&bis 
 or to the sect of those who are styled Faraizis, etc., are 
 such as have wandered from the right path, and cannot 
 be trusted.’ After explaining the three meanings of the 
 word Jihad , 2 the pamphlet lays down seven conditions 
 which must be fulfilled in order that Jihad , in its mean- 
 ing of Holy War against the Infidel, may become lawful. 
 
 ‘ First, when the rightful Imam is present, and grants his 
 permission. Second, when arms and ammunition of war 
 and experienced warriors are ready. Third, when the 
 Jihad is one against mutineers and enemies of God . 3 
 
 1 Shura. 
 
 2 (1.) Jihad ji-lldh, diligence in the adoration of God, who is glorious. 
 (2.) Jihad ha Nafs-i-Ammara , the conquering of inordinate appetites, and 
 bringing them under the control of reason, so as to make them yield to acts cf 
 devotion, deter them from unlawful pursuits, and keep a watch over the mis- 
 spending of time. (3.) Jihad fi-'d-din , or Holy War against the Infidel, as 
 authorised by Muhammadan Law. 
 
 3 Harb-i-Kafir. 
 
THE SHIAH DECISION (FA TWA), 1871 . 
 
 ZI 9 
 
 Fourth, when he who makes Holy War is in possession of 
 his reason, when he is not a lunatic or a man of impaired 
 senses, and when he is neither sick, nor blind, nor lame. 
 Fifth, when he has secured the permission of his parents. 
 Sixth, when he is not in debt. Seventh, when he has 
 sufficient money to meet the expenses of his journey and 
 of the inns by the way, and to pay for the maintenance 
 of his family.’ 
 
 Putting aside the expediency of waging war against 
 the Queen, and without any reference to the chances of 
 its failure or success, the great Shiah condition required 
 for a Holy War is the presence of the Im&m. Now, 
 hitherto this Divine Leader has withheld his face from 
 mortal men. He has not yet condescended to appear and 
 lead the armies of the Faithful. Till his shining forth, 
 any attempt at Holy War is presumptuous and sinful. 
 
 ‘ When that innocent Apostle,’ says the Pamphlet, ‘ shall 
 appear, is known only to the all-knowing God, and to no 
 one else. To commit bloodshed, except under the leader- 
 ship of that Imam in person, is strictly forbidden by the 
 Shiah law. Those are the rebels and sinful ones who 
 would revolt without the Divine sanction of the Apostle.’ 
 
 The last sentence is a hit at the Sunnis, who have 
 again and again declared Holy War without the Rightful 
 Leader, and with whom the Sliias have a long account of 
 persecution and martyrdom to settle. The arrow is barbed 
 by a very innocent, and on the surface a very chari- 
 table, reference to the idtimate conversion of the whole 
 world to Islam, but a reference which would give great 
 pain to the rival sect. The Indian Sunnis and Sliias alike 
 believe in the eventual triumph of the True Faith. But 
 with a difference. The Sunnis hold that in the latter days 
 they will carry out the injunction of the Prophet in its 
 
i2o THE SHIAH DECISION (FA TWA), 1871. 
 
 entirety, and subdue the whole world to Islbm. The 
 Shias, on the other hand, maintain that when that 
 triumph comes, it will be achieved by an amalgamation 
 (although a one-sided one) of the two great religions, 
 Christianity and Islam. This dream of a universal frater- 
 nisation in the last days is common to all religions of the 
 nobler type. The Hindus have a Book of the Future 1 
 which foretells a time when all men shall be of one reli- 
 gion and of one caste. Even the Yishnu Purana, com- 
 piled 2 amid the triumph of Hindu bigotry over Buddhism, 
 admits that in the last Iron Age to which we have now 
 come, men shall obtain the liberation of their souls, not 
 in virtue of their religion or their race, but by purity of 
 life and rectitude of action. The Shiah Musalmans have 
 also their millennium, and it is to be reached in association 
 with the Christians, who will all become Shias, and pro- 
 bably through the blood of the Sunni heretics, who at first 
 will refuse to accept the final Apostle. ‘ It is distinctly 
 laid down in our Muhammadan Law,’ the Pamphlet pro- 
 ceeds to saj’, 1 that at the time when the above-named 
 Imam shall appear, Jesus Christ (may safety attend 
 him!) shall descend from the Fourth Heaven, and friend- 
 ship, not enmity, shall exist between these two Great 
 Ones.’ 
 
 It is satisfactory to learn, therefore, that at least one 
 small sect of our Muhammadan fellow-subjects are not 
 bound by the first principles of their religion to rebel 
 against the Queen. Whatever other Musalmans may do, 
 the handful of Shias in India declare that they will not 
 compel us by force of arms to the disgraceful alterna- 
 tive of circumcision or slavery. But welcome as such 
 an assurance may be, I cannot forget that the Shias 
 
 1 Bhavishya Purana. 2 Circ. a.d. 1050. 
 
SHIAH DOCTRINE OF COMPROMISE. 
 
 121 
 
 admit a principle of religious compromise , 1 which rather 
 weakens the strength of any engagement they may make 
 with us infidels. All over the world, except in Persia, 
 they have been a persecuted people ; and, like other 
 hunted sects, have developed a system of casuistry to 
 save their bodies by what seems to strangers something 
 very like a denial of their faith. Thus a Shiah pilgrim 
 may pass himself off as a Sunni at Mecca, without peril to 
 his soul. When put to straits by their persecutors, they 
 smooth over or deny the peculiarities of their belief. In 
 extreme peril, as lately in Syria, and from time to time 
 in India, this Law of Pious Fraud has allowed them to 
 denounce their most cherished tenets, and even to curse 
 the Twelve Imams. But under the British Power they 
 have been protected from persecution, and from the temp- 
 tation to insincerity to which persecution gives rise. Their 
 present declaration of the non-obligation to rebel is spon- 
 taneous, and it is well that such a declaration has been 
 put on record. It comes to us stamped with the highest 
 authority which the Shias can give to any document, and 
 will be permanently binding on the whole sect. Even 
 without a formal pledge of this sort, they are naturally 
 loyal ; for they know that if either the Hindus or the Sunni 
 Muhammadans ever get the upper hand in India, the days 
 of tribulation for the Shias will begin. Nor would the 
 Sunnis, in their hour of victory, forget that the Legal De- 
 cision, which declares that the ultimate triumph of Isldm 
 is to be shared by Muhammadans and Christians alike, 
 issued from the palace of the ex-King of Oudh. His late 
 Majesty’s loyalty, and that of the party which he repre- 
 sents, will henceforth shine with redoubled lustre, when 
 they remember the darts which this Shiah pamphlet has 
 
 1 Takiyah, literally ‘ guarding oneself,’ 1 pious fraud.’ 
 
I 2 2 
 
 SUNNI DECISIONS ON HOLY WAR , 1871. 
 
 left rankling in the hearts alike of their Wahabi and of 
 their Sunni countrymen. 
 
 I now pass to the Formal Decisions of the greater sect. 
 The Sunnis, as they are the most numerous class of Indian 
 Musalmans, so they have of late been the most conspicuous 
 in proclaiming that they are under no religious obligation 
 to wage war against the Queen. To that end they have 
 procured two distinct sets of Legal Decisions, and the 
 Muhammadan Literary Society of Calcutta has summed 
 up the whole Sunni view of the question in a forcibly 
 written pamphlet. I would commend this little work to 
 those who doubt the intellectual acumen of the Bengali 
 Musalmans, or their capacity for judicial posts under our 
 Government. It is a triumph of legal subtlety, for it 
 contains two separate sets of syllogisms starting from 
 contradictory premises, yet arriving at the same desirable 
 conclusion. The Law Doctors of Northern Hindustan set 
 out by tacitly assuming that India is a Country of the 
 Enemy , 1 and deduce therefrom that religious rebellion is 
 uncalled for. The Calcutta Doctors declare India to be a 
 Country of Islhm , 2 and conclude that religious rebellion is 
 therefore unlawful. This result must be accepted as alike 
 satisfactory to the well-to-do Muhammadans, whom it 
 saves from the peril of contributing to the Fanatic Camp 
 on our Frontier, and gratifying to ourselves, as proving 
 that the Law and the Prophets can be utilised on the 
 side of loyalty as well as on the side of sedition . 3 
 
 Unfortunately, however, it is not the well-to-do Musal- 
 
 1 Dar-ul-Harb, literally House of Strife. 2 Ddr-ul-Islam. 
 
 3 The Pamphlet is entitled, ‘ Abstract of Proceedings of the Muhammadan 
 
 Literary Society of Calcutta, on Wednesday, 23d November 1870. Being a 
 Lecture by Maulavi Karamat Ah' of Jaunpur on a question of Muhammadan 
 Law, involving the Duty of Muhammadans in British India towards the Ruling 
 Power.’ Calcutta, 1871. 
 
SUNNI DECISIONS ON HOLY WAR, 1871. 
 
 123 
 
 mans, but the fanatical masses, who stand in need of such 
 Decisions. The powers of arrest granted by Regulation 
 III. of 1818, to enable the Executive to deal with widely 
 spread treason, such as has during the past twenty years 
 been smouldering in Bengal, and from time to time 
 bursting out in conflagrations on our Panjdb Border, 
 have at length rendered any dabbling in rebellion a most 
 perilous pastime. The comfortable classes, even among 
 the conspirators, are now glad of a pretext to wash their 
 hands of the business. Such men will welcome the Legal 
 Decisions as a door of escape out of a serious difficulty. 
 They will not inquire too closely into their strict validity, 
 but will accept them as an emollient salve for tender con- 
 sciences, and refrain from troublesome questionings as to 
 the composition of the agreeable medicament. From this 
 point of view the Muhammadan Society of Calcutta has 
 deserved well of its countrymen and of ourselves ; and 
 Maulavi Abd-ul-Latif Khan Bahddur, its Secretary, merits 
 especial thanks. Whatever view a Sunni Musalmdn may 
 take as to the religious status of India under our Rule, 
 he will find that according to that view he is not com- 
 pelled to rebel against our Government. Does he hold 
 that India is still a Country of I si dm ? Let him turn to 
 page 6, and he will learn that to wage war against the 
 Queen is therefore unlawful. Does he hold that India 
 has become a Country of the Enemy ? Let him turn to 
 the long footnote on page 11, and he will find that for 
 that very reason rebellion is uncalled for. 1 
 
 1 Here and elsewhere throughout this Chapter, I have made use of some 
 articles which I lately put forth in the Calcutta Englishman , “to whose succes- 
 sive editors, during the past seven years, I owe my acknowledgments for the 
 courtesy with which they have inserted my perhaps too frequent contributions, 
 on what I conceive to be the wrongs and requirements of the Muhammadan 
 community. 
 
1 24 SUNNI DECISIONS ON HOL Y WAR, 1871. 
 
 In the following remarks, therefore, I would disclaim 
 any intention of underrating the service which Maulavi 
 Abd-ul-Latff has done by the publication of this Tract. 
 But it would be a political blunder for us to accept 
 without inquiry the views of the Muhammadan Literary 
 Society of Calcutta as those of the Indian Musalmdns. 
 Extreme zealots of the Walnibi sect cannot be expected 
 to listen to reason of any sort, yet there is a vast body of 
 pious Muhammadans, who would be guided by a really 
 authoritative exposition of their Sacred Law. 
 
 Between a man’s convictions and his actions there 
 generally stretches a wide gap, especially when giving 
 full effect to his views leads him into the perils of 
 treason. But with good men there is a constant struggle 
 to abridge this distance, and to make practice conter- 
 minous with belief. Hitherto such men, without being 
 fanatical Wahabis, have simply accepted the obligation 
 of Holy War as an unpleasant duty. It is they who 
 have proved the mainstay of the Frontier Camp in money 
 matters, and whom it is specially desirable to win over to 
 the side of peace and loyalty. I propose, therefore, to 
 scrutinise the Sunni Decisions with a view to ascertain- 
 ing the effect which they will have on the more zealous 
 Muhammadans ; men with whom the sense of religious 
 duty is the rule of life, and whose minds are uninfluenced 
 either by fear of danger or by habits of prosperous ease. 
 For it is no use shutting our eyes to the fact that a large 
 proportion of our Muhammadan subjects belong to this 
 class. During a third of a century they have kept on 
 foot a rebel army, first against Ranjit Singh, and after- 
 wards against ourselves as his successors. In the distant 
 Province of Bengal they have equipped band after band 
 for the Frontier Camp. Every village, indeed almost 
 
SUNNI DECISIONS ON HOLY WAR, 187 x. 125 
 
 every family, has followed their example and contributed 
 to the cost of the war. Our prison gates have closed 
 upon batch after batch of unhappy misguided traitors ; 
 the Courts have condemned one set of ringleaders after 
 another to lonely islands across the sea ; yet the whole 
 country continues to furnish money and men to the 
 Forlorn Hope of Islam on our Frontier, and persists in 
 its bloodstained protest against Christian Rule. 
 
 I am very sorry to say that the effect of the Decision 
 of the Calcutta Society on this numerous and dangerous 
 class will be simply nil. The Pamphlet, however, exhibits 
 two distinct lines of argument against Holy War ; one of 
 them the view of the Society itself, the other the Formal 
 Decisions of the Law Doctors of Northern India. These 
 last are introduced only to be rebutted, but they had 
 previously appeared in an independent form, and, as I 
 shall presently show, have worked out a really authori- 
 tative argument from the Muhammadan Texts against 
 rebellion. 
 
 In the first place, it is only due to the learned 
 authors of the Pamphlet to state wherein their argument 
 fails. Its object is to prove that India is a Country of 
 Islam, 1 and that therefore Religious Rebellion is un- 
 lawful for Muhammadan subjects. Significantly enough, 
 the word therefore is omitted in the fundamental state- 
 ment of the question on page 1. Still more significant! y, 
 the two most important Decisions, that of the Mecca 
 Doctors and of Maulavi Abd-ul-IIakk, confine themselves 
 to affirming that India is a Country of Ishim, and most 
 carefully avoid drawing the inference that rebellion is there- 
 fore unlawful. The truth is, that, according to strict 
 Muhammadan law, the opposite conclusion would be 
 
 1 Ddr-ul-IsIdm. 
 
126 
 
 CALCUTTA MUHAMMADANS' VIEW. 
 
 correct, and the Mecca Doctors well knew this when they 
 gave their decision. They affirm that India is a country 
 of Islam, and leave it to the Faithful to conclude that 
 for this very reason they ought to strive, by war or other- 
 wise, to drive out the Infidels who have usurped the 
 Government, and who in a hundred ways have interfered 
 with the practices and procedure, both legal and religious, 
 of the former Muhammadan rulers . 1 
 
 The Pamphlet argues that India is still a Country of 
 Islam because it was so under the Muhammadan Rule, 
 and that, although now conquered by an infidel race, 
 yet the three conditions under which it would have 
 become a Country of the Enemy ( Dar-ul-Harb , literally 
 House of Strife) do not apply to it. These three con- 
 ditions were laid down by the greatest authority of the 
 Muhammadan Law, Abu Hanifa. The Tract quotes 
 them, however, not from one of the older and universally 
 received works, but from the Fatawi-i-Alamgiri of the 
 reign of Aurangzeb. This latter text materially differs 
 from the earlier works ; and it is an unquestionable fact 
 that the conditions, as laid down by Abu Hanifa and 
 by the old authoritative law-books, do apply to India, 
 and that, according to the orthodox doctrine, India is a 
 Country of the Enemy. I place the two enunciations of 
 the Law in parallel columns, and leave the reader to judge 
 for himself: — 
 
 The Three Conditions under which a Country of Islam becomes Dar-ul- 
 Harb, or a Country of the Enemy. 
 
 According to tlie Pamphlet, p. 3, cit- According to the Sirajiyali Imadiyah , 
 ing the Fatawi-i-Alamgiri. and all texts older than the Fatuui-i- 
 
 Alamgm. 
 
 (1.) When the Rule of Infidels is (1.) When the Rule of Infidels is 
 openly exercised, and tlie ordinances of openly exercised. 
 
 Islam are not observed. 
 
 tee Appendix I., the Mecca Decision. 
 
THEIR VIEW EXAMINED. 
 
 (2.) When it is in such contiguity to 
 a country which is Ddr-ul-Harb that 
 no city of Dar-ul-lslam intervenes be- 
 tween that country and Ddr-ul-Harb. 
 
 (3.) That no Musalman is found in 
 the enjoyment of religious liberty, nor 
 a Zimmi (an Infidel who has accepted 
 the terms of permanent subjection to 
 Musalman Rule) under the same terms 
 as he enjoyed under the Government 
 of Islam. 
 
 (2.) When it is in such contiguity to 
 a Ddr-ul-Harb that no Ddr-ul-Isldm 
 lies between it and the said Ddr-ul- 
 Harb, so that no help can be brought 
 from the Ddr-ul-Islam to that country. 
 
 (3.) When neither Musalmans nor 
 Zimnu's enjoy the Aman-i- avowal (a 
 technical term which will be explained 
 hereafter). 1 
 
 These three conditions, as laid down in the older and 
 more authoritative texts, apply to India . 2 With regard 
 to the first of them, it will be seen that the Fatdwi-i- 
 Alamgiri adds certain words which I have italicised, and 
 for which there is no authority in the earlier law- 
 books, which cite direct from Abu Hani'fa. The first 
 condition as authoritatively laid down is simply that 
 ‘ the rule of the Infidels be openly exercised ; ’ and this 
 condition most unquestionably applies to India at the 
 present hour. With regard to the second condition, the 
 Pamphlet makes an omission as unwarranted as the 
 addendum to the preceding one. According to the ortho- 
 dox texts, India is a Country of the Enemy because no 
 intervening country exists between it and England (the Ddr- 
 ul-Harb in question), which can send help to India to prevent 
 
 1 For this collection of Texts, as also for several of the Fatwas, and many 
 of the arguments contained in my examination of the Sunni Pamphlet, I am 
 indebted to Professor Blochmann of the Muhammadan College, Calcutta, a 
 gentleman who will yet be recognised in Europe as one of the brightest orna- 
 ments of Indian scholarship. 
 
 2 Abu Hani'fa held that the whole of the three conditions above mentioned 
 had to be fulfilled in order that a Country of the Faithful should lapse into a 
 state of a Country of the Enemy. His two disciples, the Sahiban, i.e. Imam 
 Muhammad and Imam Yusuf, held that the existence of one of the conditions 
 sufficed. The Calcutta Sunnis rightly support the authority of Abu Hani'fa 
 against the Sahiban (p. 4 of the Pamphlet) ; but I shall show that all the three 
 conditions are now fulfilled in India, so that both according to Abu Hani'fa and 
 his disciples the Country has become a Ddr-ul-Harb. 
 
128 
 
 THEIR VIEW EXAMINED. 
 
 its lapsing into the state of Ddr-ul-Harb. When England 
 conquered India, the road between the countries was the 
 sea, and it is clearly laid down in the Hamawi and Talitawi 
 that the sea is Ddr-ul-Harb. Consequently, on the original 
 and still the principal highway from India to England, 
 there is no Country of the Faithful which could send help 
 to Hindustan. That Cabul, a Country of the Faithful, 
 borders on India, has nothing to do with the question ; 
 for Abu Hanifa’s condition only refers to such a land as 
 intervening on the road between the two countries, and 
 able to assist in preventing the one of them from lapsing 
 into a Country of the Enemy. Now no one will pretend 
 that Cabul lies on the route between England and India, 
 or has any power to send aid to the Muhammadan subjects 
 in the latter. 
 
 But the most serious misinterpretation lurks in the 
 Pamphlet’s rendering of the third condition. The whole 
 force of this condition turns upon the meaning of the 
 term Aman-i-awwal, which the Tract translates as ‘religious 
 liberty.’ But these words totally fail to give a correct 
 idea, of what is meant. ‘ Amdn' literally signifies security , 
 and the meaning of Aman-i-awwal is distinctly laid down 
 in the J ami' -ur-rumuz as implying the whole religious se- 
 curity and full status which the Muhammadans formerly 
 enjoyed under their own Pule. This authority, which the 
 Calcutta Sunnis themselves will not venture to dispute, 
 says that a Country becomes a Country of the Enem}', 
 (1) when Musalmans and Zimmis (i.e. the Infidels sub- 
 ject. to them) enjoy only such Amdn (religious status) 
 as the Infidels choose to grant ; and (2) when the full 
 religious status formerly enjoyed under their own Govern- 
 ment, and the religious status which they, as the then 
 ruling race, granted to the Infidels subject to them, no 
 
THEIR VIEW EXAMINED. 
 
 129 
 
 longer exist. Now it is perfectly clear that both these 
 clauses apply to India at present. The Aman , or religious 
 status, which the Muhammadans now enjoy, is entirely 
 dependent on the will of their Christian rulers, and they 
 enjoy it only in such a degree as we choose to grant. 
 This degree falls far short of the full religious status 
 which they formerly possessed. The British Government 
 taxes the Muhammadans, and applies the taxes to the 
 erection of Christian Churches, and the maintenance of 
 a Christian Clergy. It has substituted Englishmen for 
 the Muhammadan governors whom it found in charge 
 of the Districts and Provinces. It has formally abolished 
 the Musalmdn Judges and Law Officers. 1 It allows 
 pork and wine to be openly sold in the market-places. 
 It has introduced English into the Courts. It has super- 
 seded the whole Muhammadan procedure and criminal 
 law. It has afforded protection to unhappy ffillen 
 women by Act XIV. of 18G8. 2 It makes no provision 
 such as a king is bound to make, according to the 
 Musalmdn Code, for seeing that the people attend the 
 mosques and perform their religious duties. It must be 
 remembered that the civil and religious law of Islam, and 
 the civil and religious status of Musalmdns, are insepar- 
 ably mixed up. The stamps required by our Courts on 
 a plaint, our statutes of limitation, the orders by our 
 Judges to pay interest upon money found to be due, and 
 our entire system of legal procedure and religious tolera- 
 tion, are opposed to the Muhammadan law, and are in- 
 fringements of the Aman , or status, which our Musalmdn 
 subjects enjoyed under their own rulers. Nor has the 
 religious status of the Zimmis , or Christian and other 
 
 1 Kazis, by Act XI. of 18G4, on which more hereafter, 
 
 2 The Indian Contagious Diseases Act. 
 
 I 
 
130 
 
 THEIR VIEW EXAMINED. 
 
 Infidel subjects of the Muhammadan Empire of India, 
 undergone less change. The Christian Zimmis are there 
 no more a subject people, but conquerors and governors. 
 The Hindu Zimmis no longer pay the poll-tax ; 1 and we 
 have interfered with their religious usages in a hundred 
 ways, such as doing away with Trial by Ordeal, abolishing 
 widow-burning, ignoring their system of caste, and giving 
 a legislative recognition to converts to Christianity. In 
 short, the Aman-i-awwal , or former status both of Muham- 
 madans and of Zimmis , has been totally altered ; and 
 according to the third condition also of Abu Hanffa, 
 India has become a Country of the Enemy (Dar-ul-Harb). 
 
 The question has been settled over and over again, as 
 a few analogous cases will show. Greece was a Country of 
 Islam so long as it remained under the Turk. But since 
 it shook off the Musalman yoke half a century ago, it 
 has always been held to be a Country of the Enemy, 
 notwithstanding the Muhammadan population which re- 
 mained in it. The same remark applies to several of 
 the Danubian Provinces, the South of Spain, and every 
 country in which a similar revolution of Government has 
 taken place. The Mabsut of Imam Muhammad, Abu 
 Hanffa’s celebrated disciple, thus lays down the law : 
 4 When a Country of Isldm falls into the hands of the 
 Infidel, it remains a Country of Islam if the Infidels retain 
 Muhammadan Governors and Muhammadan Judges , 2 and do 
 not introduce their own Regulations.' 1 We have not retained 
 Muhammadan Governors; we have abolished the Muham- 
 madan Law Officers ; we have introduced our own Regu- 
 lations ; and India has, according to the doctrine followed 
 by the great majority of Indian Musalmans, ceased to he 
 a Country of Isldrn. 
 
 J Jizya. 
 
 2 Kilzis. 
 
DECISIONS IN NORTHERN INDIA, 1871. 
 
 *3i 
 
 The Wahabis start with the declaration that India 
 has become a Country of the Enemy, and from this they 
 deduce the obligation of Holy War against its rulers. 
 The Calcutta Pamphlet denies the first position, and 
 asserts that India has not become a Country of the 
 Enemy, but still continues a Country of Islam. It has 
 failed, however, to make out its case, and it will produce 
 no effect whatever on the great body of earnest Muham- 
 madans whom it is so important to win over to our side. 
 The Law Doctors of Upper India have argued from 
 quite a different basis. They do not deny the Wahabis’ 
 first position, that India has ceased to be a Country of 
 Isldm, but they deny that the obligation to Holy War 
 follows therefrom. 
 
 This, I believe, is the true solution of the difficulty. 
 Had India remained a Country of Islam, as the Mecca 
 Law Doctors insidiously try to make out, a large portion 
 of the orthodox sect would have deemed themselves bound 
 to rebel. If India were still de jure a Country of Isldm, 
 this portion of our Musalmdn subjects would feel com- 
 pelled to rise against us, and to make it a Country of Islam 
 de facto. It is written in all the law books : ‘ If Infidels 
 press hard or occupy a town in a Country of Isldm , 1 it 
 is absolutely incumbent 2 on every Muhammadan man, 
 woman, and child to hurt and drive away the Infidel 
 Ruler.’ This is so established a rule, that the King of 
 Bokhara was compelled by his subjects to declare Holy 
 War against the Russians as soon as they entered the 
 Country of Islam. Indeed, if India were still a Country 
 of the Faithful, every day some ground of rebellion would 
 arise. Our religious toleration would itself constitute 
 a capital crime. For example (and not to mention graver 
 
 1 Bilad-ul-Islam. 2 Farz-ain. 
 
1 3 2 VIE IV OF NOR THERN LAW D OCTORS, 1871 . 
 
 causes of offence), the Muhammadan texts lay down that 
 if the Ruler or King of a Country of Islam does not look 
 after the maintenance and spread of the True Faith, 
 rebellion against him becomes lawful. In the reign of 
 Akbar, who modified the Muhammadan law in a spirit of 
 toleration towards his Hindu subjects, Formal Decisions 
 commanding rebellion were published, and led to bloody 
 insurrections. Much more would rebellion now be in- 
 cumbent (if India had not ceased to be a Country of 
 Islam) in the case of the English, who have interfered in 
 a hundred points with the Muhammandan Code, extirpated 
 the Musalman Law Officers, and abolished the whole 
 Islamitic Procedure. I therefore view with extreme 
 suspicion the decision of the Doctors at Mecca, that 
 stronghold of fanaticism and intolerant zeal, when they 
 declare that India is a Country of Islam, but who, instead 
 of deducing therefrom, as the Calcutta Muhammadan 
 Literary Society infer, that rebellion is therefore unlaw- 
 ful, leave it to their Indian co-religionists to draw the 
 opposite conclusion, — namely, that rebellion is therefore 
 incumbent. 
 
 Nevertheless there is a class of Indian Musalmbns 
 who would not draw this inference. To them it will be a 
 comfort that so respectable a body as the Muhammadan 
 Society of Calcutta has formally declared, by the mouths 
 of eminent Doctors of the Law , 1 that India is still a 
 country of the Faithful, and that rebellion is therefore 
 uncalled for. For in the Muhammadan as in the Christian 
 community, an endless conflict of doctrine goes on. To 
 enable the reader to enter into the feelings of this class, 
 
 1 Maulavi' Karamat Ah' of Jaunpur ; Sheikh Ahmad Effendi-el-Ansdri ; 
 M aula vi Abd-ul-Hakim ; besides a Muhammadan gentleman of high English 
 education and keen practical intelligence, Maulavi Abd-ul-Latif Khan Bahadur. 
 
VIEW OF NORTHERN LAW DOCTORS , 1871. 133 
 
 I give below 1 the speech of a venerable Sheikh at the 
 Meeting on whose proceedings the Pamphlet is based. The 
 English are apt to misinterpret Indian affairs from a 
 purely European point of view. They will find that their 
 Asiatic subjects, who are six times more numerous than 
 the whole population of the British Isles, can twist Euro- 
 pean politics with equal ignorance and with equal hardi- 
 hood to suit Indian exigencies. 
 
 The Calcutta Decision, although erroneous, will be 
 acceptable to many easy-going well-to-do Muhammadans. 
 
 1 ‘ Sheikh Ahmad Effendi-el-Ansfiri (a respectable resident of Medina, and 
 a descendant of Abu Ayyub-el-Ansarf, one of the Companions of the Prophet), 
 who has for several days been staying in this City, next rose and said that he 
 was not a Member of the Society. But as he had the good fortune of being 
 present at the Meeting, he would ask permission to be allowed to say a few 
 words, as the discussion was on a very important subject, involving the pro- 
 priety or otherwise of a great many acts performed by Muhammadans, both 
 secular and appertaining to Divine Worship, and had also a personal bearing 
 on his own conduct in coming to this Country, and residing here for several 
 years. 
 
 ‘ The President replied that the Meeting would listen to him with great 
 pleasure, and would feel highly obliged to him, and that whatever he would 
 say would be considered of great value. 
 
 ‘ The venerable Sheikh thereupon said, that before this he had travelled in 
 many countries, and that he had been twice to Constantinople. The first time 
 he went there was during the reign of the late Emperor, Sultan Mahmud 
 Khan ; and on that occasion he stayed there for two years. The second time 
 was after the accession to the throne of the present Sovereign, Sultan Abd-ul- 
 Aziz Khan, when he remained there for fourteen months. He had also been to 
 Egypt, Syria, and several cities in Asiatic Turkey, residing there for various 
 periods ; and this was his fourth visit to India. He had first come to this 
 country about twenty-nine years ago, and remained at different places for 
 nearly seven or seven and a half years. Thus he had been two and a half years 
 at Dehli, and two years and nine months at Lucknow, during the reign of the 
 late Arnjud Ah' Shah ; and while there he was all along the guest of the King, 
 who was exceedingly kind, hospitable, and courteous to him. For two years he 
 was at Haidrab&d in the Deccan, and then proceeded to Baroda. From there 
 he had proceeded to Afghanistan, where he continued travelling for four or four 
 and a half years. His visit to Afghanistan was made in the company of the 
 brother of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan of Cabul, and during his residence at 
 Cabul he had been a guest of the King. On two other occasions also he had 
 come to India, but returned after staying only at Haidrabad in the Deccan, and 
 in the Province of Sindh respectively. It was nearly a year since he had this 
 time come to India, and he had been travelling through Bombay, Bhopal, 
 
i 3 4 VIEW OF NORTHERN LAW DOCTORS , 1871. 
 
 But the Authoritative Declaration of the Law Doctors of 
 Northern India will prove of far wider use. It accepts 
 the Wahdbi position of India being a Country of the 
 Enemy, and deduces by logical steps the duty of the 
 existing Muhammadans to live as peaceable subjects. I 
 give their decision, which is a technical matter, as an 
 Appendix, and now briefly unfold the more interesting 
 historical aspects of the case. 
 
 During the first half of the eighteenth century, pre- 
 cisely the same question arose as that which now agitates 
 
 Rampur, Allahabad, Patna, Gaya, etc., and had lastly arrived at Calcutta. He 
 had this time also been very hospitably received everywhere, especially by Her 
 Highness the Begum of Bhopal and His Highness the Nuwab of Rampur, to 
 whom particularly he could not sufficiently express his gratitude for their 
 unbounded kindness and hospitality. The reasons of his giving the details of 
 his travels was, that from this varied experience which he had the good fortune 
 to acquire in his sojourn in so many different countries, especially during his 
 four visits to India, he was in a position to support and verify all that had 
 been said by the several speakers w r ith reference to the particular subject be- 
 fore the Meeting, especially the statement of the Secretary as to the friendship 
 between Her Majesty the Queen of England and His Majesty the Sultan of 
 Turkey. In truth, there was a closer intimacy between the British Nation and 
 the Sultan, than between the Sultan and any other Nation in the World. He, 
 the speaker, remembered a very recent incident which strongly testified to the 
 great sincerity existing between the British Nation and the Sultan. A short 
 time ago the Khedive of Egypt showed a spirit of insubordination and dis- 
 loyalty towards the Sultan. There was every probability of the occurrence 
 of serious events, and the Sultan ultimately sent a menacing and peremptory 
 Firman to the Khedive, a compliance with which alone could induce the Sultan 
 to overlook the misconduct of the Khedive. The Khedive hesitated to comply 
 with the requisitions of his Liege Sovereign, and very likely he would not have 
 obeyed the Mandate at all. But before doing anything, he communicated to 
 the British Consul-General the Message that the Sultan had sent, and waited 
 for advice. This was given at once. The British Consul-General informed the 
 Khedive that he had received instructions from the British Ministry, that unless 
 the Khedive obeyed the Imperial Mandate, the Consul’s orders were to telegraph 
 to the British fleet at Athens to proceed to Alexandria at once. On hearing this 
 the Khedive gave way, and all thoughts of rebellion vanished from his mind. 
 He at once complied with the peremptory and humiliating conditions of the 
 Mandate, and returned to obedience and loyalty. This shows the extreme 
 degree of cordiality and friendship of the British Nation with the Sultan. They 
 had already fought with a Foreign Enemy of the Sultan, and now they 
 expressed their readiness to fight against an Internal Enemy who had assumed 
 the attitude of a rebel. Although the Sultan was, even single-handed, more 
 
HISTORICAL ASPECTS, 1700-1765. 
 
 135 
 
 the Indian Musalmdns in the second half of the nineteenth. 
 The Marhattd Infidels had overrun the Muhammadan 
 Empire of India. Provinces which had formerly been 
 ruled over by Musalm&ns or by Hindu deputies, according 
 to the Muhammadan Law, were seized by an Unbeliev- 
 ing Dynasty. Among the more devout Musalm&ns, the 
 question of their status under the conquerors, and of 
 their obligation to rebel against them, immediately arose. 
 It was decided that, inasmuch as the Marhattas satisfied 
 themselves with taking one-fourtli 1 of the revenue, witli- 
 
 than equal to the task of bringing the Khedive to his senses, yet the British 
 Nation did not like that he should be put to so much trouble and vexation. It 
 is worthy of notice that they were at the same time on terms of friendship 
 with the Khedive of Egypt. But this was because he enjoyed the position of 
 the Sultan’s Lieutenant, and they disregarded his friendship in a matter where 
 the Sultan’s interests were concerned. In short, had they not shown their 
 readiness to fight against the Khedive, it would have been no matter of surprise 
 if the latter had ventured to measure his strength with his Liege Sovereign ; 
 and the gentlemen present could well conceive the calamities of such an internal 
 conflict. Owing to the promptness shown by the British Government, both 
 the Sultan and the Khedive escaped the evil consequences of War. Is there a 
 greater enemy to Islam than one who would like to wage war against such 
 sincere friends of the Sultan of Islam ? Again, as to British India being Dar- 
 ul-lsldm. Besides the Authorities already quoted by the speakers at this 
 Meeting, a Fatu-a had already been delivered by the most learned and pious 
 men of the two Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina. This he considered was 
 more than sufficient for the purpose; for those venerable learned men have 
 pronounced British India to be Dur-ul-Isldm, after a thorough investigation 
 into all the circumstances of this country. 
 
 ‘ On the strength of this Fatwa , a native of Arabia comes to this country 
 without any hesitation, and remains here as long as he chooses without applying 
 for or obtaining any guarantee from the British Rulers for civil and religious 
 liberty. Besides this, about twenty-nine years ago, when he first came to this 
 country, there existed hundreds of most learned and pious Muhammadans in 
 Dehli and Lucknow, with all of whom he was on terms of intimacy, but he 
 never heard any one of them calling India Dar-ul-Harb. All of them treated 
 this country as Ddr-ul-Islam, and all the injunctions necessary in Dar-ul-Isldm 
 were observed here. It was within the speaker’s experience that in those days 
 were observed, as at present, the Prayers of Friday and the two ’Ids. No 
 change had taken place which could take away the character of Dar-ul-Isldm 
 from this country.’ The learned Sheikh had kept such good company on his 
 travels, that he was quite oblivious to what was going on among the masses 
 of the Indian Musalmans. 
 
 1 Chaulh. 
 
136 
 
 HISTORICAL ASPECTS, t 765 - 1 793 . 
 
 out further interfering with the actual administration, 
 India still remained a Country of Islam. They left the 
 Muhammadan Governors of Provinces untouched. They 
 maintained the Muhammadan Judges and Law Officers 1 
 undisturbed. On the demise of a Musalman Governor, a 
 new ruler of the same religion was appointed. Indeed, 
 the confirmation of his hereditary successor was considered 
 a matter of right upon payment of a present to the distant 
 Marhatta Court. The following is the Decision which the 
 greatest authority of that time gave forth : 2 — £ Now let us 
 suppose that a Country of Islam has fallen into the hands 
 of Infidels, who, however, permit the Muhammadans to 
 say their Friday and ’Id Festival prayers ; who maintain 
 the law of Isldm, and appoint Kazis to carry it out accord- 
 ing to the wishes of the Musalmans, but in which, never- 
 theless, the Muhammadans have to ask the Infidels to 
 appoint [the Musalmdn] Governors. Such countries un- 
 happily exist in our time, where Muhammadan Governors 
 are appointed by Infidels, and where the Friday and ’Id 
 Festival prayers are still said. For the Infidel [Mar- 
 hattas] have taken possession of some of our Provinces. 
 It is therefore needful for every Muhammadan to know 
 what the law says in such a case. 
 
 ‘ The truth is, that if such a Muhammadan Province 
 falls into the hands of the Infidels, it continues a Country 
 of the Faithful, because no Country of the Enemy is 
 adjacent to it, and because the law of the Infidels is not 
 introduced, and because the Governors and the Judges 
 
 1 Kazis. 
 
 2 I have again to express my acknowledgments to Professor Blochmann for 
 this Fatwa. He copied it from an Arabic work by Kazi Muhammad Ala, son 
 of Maulavf Sheikh Ah', son of Kazi Muhammad Hamid, son of Maulavi Taki- 
 ud-din Muhammad Sabir, a descendant of Omar of Tharnuah. It is entitled 
 Ahkdm-ul-arazi, or Orders on Land Tenures, and deals chiefly with real pro- 
 perty in a Ddr-ul-Islam. 
 
HISTORICAL ASPECTS, 1765 - 1864 . 
 
 i37 
 
 are Muhammadans, who decide according to the law of 
 Isl&in, and because even the Infidels themselves refer all 
 matters to the Muhammadan law, and the Musalm&n 
 Law Officers pass sentence on the Infidels.’ 
 
 Not one of the reasons here assigned for India con- 
 tinuing a Country of the Faithful holds good at the 
 present day. The early servants of the East India Com- 
 pany perfectly understood their position ; and when they 
 first took over the Provinces, they left the Muhammadan 
 Administration absolutely undisturbed. They retained 
 the Muhammadan code as the law of the land, appointed 
 Muhammadan Law Officers to carry it out, and in the 
 smallest matter, as in the greatest, acted merely in the 
 name of the Muhammadan Emperor of Dehli. Indeed, so 
 afraid was the East India Company of assuming the 
 insignia of sovereignty, that long after its attempts to 
 govern the country through the Musalmdns had broken 
 down, in consequence of the indescribable corruption of 
 the Muhammadan administration, it still pretended to 
 be the Deputy of a Musalm&n Monarch. It is a matter 
 of history how this pretence in the end sunk into a con- 
 temptible farce, and how we struck coins 1 in the name 
 of the King of Dehli, while our Resident was paying the 
 poor pensioner a monthly allowance for his table ex- 
 penses. 
 
 As Indian history has hitherto been generally written 
 by persons 2 who have never set foot in India, it would be 
 
 1 Bearing after 1773 the following superscription, slightly changed accord- 
 ing to the name of the Emperor : ‘ The King Shah’alam, the Defender of the 
 Faith of Muhammad, the shadow of the grace of God, has struck this coin to 
 be current through the seven climes.’ On the reverse : ‘ Struck at Murshidabad 
 in the 19th year of the auspicious accession.’ 
 
 2 With the conspicuous exception of Marshman’s and Meadows Taylor’s 
 excellent volumes. Mountstuart Elphinstone does not come down to the period 
 in question. 
 
138 HISTORICAL ASPECTS , 1765 - 1864 . 
 
 unfair to expect that the meaning of this strange mode- 
 ration on the part of the East India Company should 
 be understood in England. The truth is, that had we 
 hastened by a single decade our formal assumption of the 
 sovereignty, we should have been landed in a Muham- 
 madan rising infinitely more serious than the mutinies 
 of 1857. The whole status of the Musalmans would 
 have been suddenly changed. We should have been 
 in the position of an Infidel Power who had seized 
 and occupied a Country of Islam. The great majority 
 of the Indian Musalmans would have deemed it their 
 absolute duty to rebel ; for, as I have already shown, 
 the first obligation ‘of every man, woman, and child,’ 
 in such a case, ‘is to hurt and drive away the Infidel 
 Ruler.’ 1 
 
 The admirable moderation of the East India Com- 
 pany’s servants, and their determination to let the 
 Muhammadan Power expire by slow natural decay, with- 
 out hastening its death a single moment, averted this 
 danger. India passed from a Country of Isldm into a 
 Country of the Enemy 2 by absolutely imperceptible gra- 
 dations. After many years’ study of the Imperial and 
 District Archives, I find myself unable to place my finger 
 on any given year or decade of years as that in which 
 the change was effected. We got rid of the subordinate 
 Muhammadan Governors long before we touched the 
 nominal supremacy of the Muhammadan Emperors. Long 
 after that nominal supremacy had become a farce, and 
 indeed up to 1835, our coinage still issued in his name. 3 
 
 1 Mabsut of Imam Muhammad. 
 
 2 i.e. from a Ddr-ul-Isldm to a Dar-ul-Harb. 
 
 3 The Company’s Rupee of 1835, of 180 grains Troy, was the first one 
 bearing the head of the British Sovereign and the name of the East India 
 Company. 
 
HISTORICAL ASPECTS , 1765-1864. 139 
 
 Even after we thus ventured to impress the British Sove- 
 reign’s effigy on our coin, we maintained much of the 
 Muhammadan Procedure along with the Muhammadan 
 Court Language. These in their turn slowly disappeared. 
 But it was not till 1864 that we took the bold step, and 
 in my opinion the unwise step, of doing away with the 
 Muhammadan Law Officers by an Act 1 of the Legislature. 
 This Law put the last touch to the edifice of the new 
 Empire of India as a Country of the Enemy, the rebuilding 
 of which had been wisely spread over one hundred years 
 (1765 to 1864). While the Muhammadan Rule thus im- 
 perceptibly disappeared, a new set of obligations on the 
 part of our Musalman subjects was springing up. Before 
 India had passed into a Country of the Enemy, the duties 
 incumbent upon the Muhammadans in a Country of Islam 
 had faded away. One of the first of these duties, as I 
 have already said, is rebellion against an Infidel Con- 
 queror. But when the change has been finally accom- 
 plished, a new set of obligations comes into play. The 
 position of the Muhammadans wholly alters. The existing 
 generation is not responsible for the change ; and instead 
 of being the owners of the country suddenly deprived of 
 their rights and bound to regain them, they have become 
 what is technically called mustdmin , or seekers for pro- 
 tection. As such, they obtain from their English Rulers 
 a certain amount of their civil and religious privileges 
 (Aman). Not indeed their former complete status 2 under 
 Muhammadan Rule, but sufficient for the protection of 
 their lives and property, and the safety of their souls. 
 No interference is made with their private prayers or 
 
 1 Act Xr. of 1864. 
 
 2 The Aman-i-divival of the Sirajiyah, Imadiyah , and all other texts older 
 than the Fatawi-i-Alamgvri. 
 
140 RECIPROCAL DUTIES. 
 
 public worship, and their religious lands and foundations 
 are respected. In return for this fair amount of religious 
 and civil liberty ( Amdn ), they accept, as their forefathers 
 during the past fifty years have accepted, the position of 
 subjects. The same authorities which would have formerly 
 compelled them as Muhammadans in a Country of Islam 
 to resist an Infidel Invader, now bind them, as subjects 
 of a Country of the Enemy, to adhere to their en- 
 gagements with, and to live peaceably under, an Infidel 
 Ruler. 
 
 The duty of waging war has thus disappeared. The 
 present generation of Musalmans are bound, according to 
 their own texts, to accept the status quo. They are not 
 responsible for it, and they are forbidden, in the face of 
 God’s providence, and with regard to the immense perils 
 in which a revolt would involve the True Faith, to have 
 recourse to arms. They are compelled to adhere to the 
 mutual relation which has sprung up between the rulers 
 and the ruled, and to perform their duties as subjects so 
 long as we maintain their status (Amdn) sufficiently intact 
 to enable them to discharge the duties of their religion. 
 
 If, however, their English Governors should infringe 
 the tacit agreement by interfering with the prayers, or 
 the public worship, or other lawful ceremonies of their 
 Muhammadan subjects, or with the erection of Mosques, 
 or with pilgrimage, or with the adoration of saints, or 
 with the domestic law of Islam, then rebellion would be 
 lawful. If, under such circumstances, rebellion, although 
 lawful, were impracticable, then wholesale emigration or 
 Flight (Hijra) becomes incumbent on every devout 
 Musalmdn. The various conditions under which such 
 Flight is necessary are laid down by Shdh Abd-ul-Aziz, 
 and are given in all Law Books. 
 
HISTORICAL ASPECTS, 1790 - 1820 . 141 
 
 In my next Chapter I shall show that we have lately 
 trenched perilously near upon these conditions. For the 
 object of this little book is not merely to explain the 
 duties of our Muhammadan subjects to their rulers, but 
 to impress upon the rulers their duty to the ruled. The 
 Decision of the Law Doctors of Northern India, which I 
 have expanded historically in the foregoing pages, will 
 carry weight with the very classes whose goodwill it is 
 important to conciliate. But it will carry weight with 
 them only so long as we respect their rights and religious 
 privileges. The Wahdbis to a man, and a large propor- 
 tion of the devout Musalmdns, believe India to be now a 
 Country of the Enemy. But the more sensible majority 
 of them, while sorrowfully lamenting its lapsed state, 
 are willing to accept the duties belonging to that con- 
 dition. The whole Kurdn is based upon the conception 
 of the Musalmdns as a conquering, and not as a conquered 
 people. As already explained, however, the Kurdn was 
 long ago found inadequate to the necessities of Civil 
 Polity, and a system of Canon and Public Law has been 
 developed from it to suit the exigencies of Musalman 
 nations. It is hopeless to look for anything like enthu- 
 siastic loyalty from our Muhammadan subjects. But we 
 can reasonably expect that, so long as we scrupulously 
 discharge our obligations to them, they will honestly fulfil 
 their duties in the position in which God has placed them 
 to us. 
 
 The more acute among the Law Doctors long ago 
 detected the coming change in the status of the Musal- 
 mdns of India, — the change which has now become an 
 accomplished fact. From time to time Decisions have 
 appeared, which show that, in spite of the cautious 
 timidity of the East India Company, the revolution did 
 
i 4 2 EFFECT OF FORMER DECISIONS. 
 
 not go on unperceived. One of these Decisions de- 
 clared that India would remain a Country of Isldm only 
 so long as the Muhammadan Judges, whom we have 
 abolished, continued to administer the Law. But perhaps 
 the two most important were those of Shdh Abd-ul-Aziz, 
 the Sun of India, and of his nephew Maulavi Abd-ul-Hai. 
 As we gradually transferred the administration to our 
 own hands, pious Musalm&ns were greatly agitated touch- 
 ing the relation which they should hold to us. They 
 accordingly consulted the highest Indian authorities on 
 the point, and both the celebrated men above mentioned 
 gave forth responses. Here are their decisions word for 
 word : — 
 
 ‘ When Infidels get hold of a Muhammadan country,’ 
 Abd-ul-Aziz declared, ‘ and it becomes impossible for the 
 Musalmans of the country, and of the people of the 
 neighbouring districts, to drive them away, or to retain 
 reasonable hope of ever doing so ; and the power of the 
 Infidels increases to such an extent, that they can abolish 
 or retain the ordinances of Isl&m according to their 
 pleasure ; and no one is strong enough to seize on the 
 revenues of the country without the permission of the 
 Infidels ; and the (Musalm&n) inhabitants do no longer live 
 so secure as before ; such a country is politically a Country 
 of the Enemy ( Ddr-ul-Harb ).’ 
 
 When we consolidated our power, the decisions of 
 the Doctors became more and more distinct as to India 
 being Ddr-ul-Harb. Maulavi Abd-ul-Hai, who belongs to 
 the generation after Abd-ul-Aziz, distinctly ruled as fol- 
 lows : ‘ The Empire of the Christians from Calcutta to 
 Dehli, and other countries adjacent to Hindustan proper 
 (i.e. the North-West Provinces), are all the Country of 
 the Enemy {Ddr-ul-Harb), for idolatry {Kufr and Shirk) is 
 
THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER. 143 
 
 everywhere current, and no recourse is made to our holy 
 law. Whenever such circumstances exist in a country, 
 the country is a Dar-ul-Harb. It is too long here to 
 specify all conditions ; but the opinions of all lawyers agree 
 in this, that Calcutta and its dependencies are the Country 
 of the Enemy (Ddr-ul-Harb ).’ 
 
 These Decisions have borne practical fruit. The 
 Wahdbis, whose zeal is greater than their knowledge, 
 deduce from the fact of India being technically a Country 
 of the Enemy, the obligation to wage war upon its rulers. 
 The more enlightened Musalmhns, while sorrowfully 
 accepting the fact, regard it not as ground of rebellion, 
 but as a curtailment of their spiritual privileges. For 
 example, in a Country of Isldm, where the full religious 
 status exists, the Friday Prayer is absolutely incumbent. 
 In India not only do many devout Muhammadans refrain 
 from this service, but some of the mosques refuse to allow 
 its performance. Thus the two most eminent Musalmdns 
 of Calcutta in their respective walks of life, the late head 
 Professor 1 of the Muhammadan College, and the late 
 Chief of all the Muhammadan Law Officers , 2 refrained 
 from saying the Friday Prayer. They accepted the posi- 
 tion of India as a Country of the Enemy as a curtailment 
 to this extent of their religious privileges. But they 
 lived loyal subjects to, and honoured servants of, the 
 British Government. Many Muhammadans who acknow- 
 ledge the lapsed state of India, do not go so far as to 
 deny themselves the consolations of the Friday Service. 
 A still greater number would break their connection with 
 the Wahabi party if they could see their way to doing so 
 
 1 Maulavi Muhammad Wajih. 
 
 - The Kazi-’l-Kuzut Fazl-ur-llahman. 
 
144 
 
 THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER. 
 
 without peril to their souls. The Formal Decisions lately 
 issued by the Law Doctors of Northern India, with the 
 historical amplification now set forth, will give peace to 
 thousands of devout men. 
 
 It may seem that a cold acquiescence in our rule is 
 but a meagre result from the discussions which have so 
 long agitated the Muhammadan community. But such 
 an acquiescence is the utmost that the intolerant spirit of 
 Islam will permit to a really sincere disciple. Absolutely 
 conscientious men, however, form a minority among 
 Musalmans as among Christians, and an established 
 Government has always the worldly-minded on its side. 
 No young man, whether Hindu or Muhammadan, passes 
 through our Anglo-Indian schools without learning to dis- 
 believe the faith of his fathers. The luxuriant religions 
 of Asia shrivel into dry sticks when brought into contact 
 with the icy realities of Western science. In addition to 
 the rising generation of sceptics, we have the support of 
 the comfortable classes ; men of inert convictions and of 
 some property, who say their prayers, decorously attend 
 the mosque, and think very little about the matter. But 
 important as these two sections of the Muhammadans 
 may be from a political point of view, it has always 
 seemed to me an inexpressibly painful incident of our 
 position in India that the best men are not on our side. 
 Hitherto they have been steadily against us, and it is no 
 small thing that this chronic hostility has lately been 
 removed from the category of an imperative obligation. 
 Even now the utmost we can expect of them is non- 
 resistance. But an honest Government may more safely 
 trust to a cold acquiescence, firmly grounded upon a 
 sense of religious duty, than to a louder-mouthed loyalty, 
 
THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER. 
 
 r 45 
 
 springing only from the unstable promptings of self- 
 interest . 1 
 
 1 If Government deemed it prudent to put the case to the Muhammadan 
 Law Doctors in a really crucial shape, the following question would per- 
 manently bind them down to one side or the other. Such a proceeding happily 
 does not seem called for at present ; but in event of its ever becoming needful 
 to make use of a public Test of Loyalty, this would be the best form for it : 
 
 Question. 
 
 Learned Men and Expounders of the Law of Islam ! 
 
 What is your opinion in the following matter : — 
 
 In the case of a Muhammadan Ruler attacking India while in the possession of 
 the English, is it the Duty of the Muhammadans of that country to renounce 
 the Amdn of the English, and render help to the Invader? 
 
 K 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WRONGS OF THE MUHAMMADANS UNDER BRITISH RULE. 
 
 PT^HE Indian Musalmbns, therefore, are bound by their 
 ■*- own law to live peaceably under our Rule. But 
 the obligation continues only so long as we perform our 
 share of the contract, and respect their rights and spiritual 
 privileges. Once let us interfere with their civil and reli- 
 gious status (A man), so as to prevent the fulfilment of 
 the ordinances of their F aith, and their duty to us ceases. 
 We may enforce submission, but we can no longer claim 
 obedience. It is the glory of the English in India, how- 
 ever, that they have substituted for the military occupa- 
 tion of all former conquerors, a Civil Government adapted 
 to the wants and supported by the goodwill of the 
 people. Any serious wrong done to the Muhammadans 
 would render such a Government impossible. Even 
 minor grievances attain in their case the gravity of 
 political blunders, — blunders of which the cumulative 
 effect, according to the law of Islbm, would be to entirely 
 change the relation of the Musalmdns to the ruling power, 
 to free them from their duty as subjects, and bind them 
 over to treason and Holy War. 
 
 Of such blunders the Indian Government has, in my 
 humble opinion, been more than once guilty. But before 
 pointing out what I conceive to be our shortcomings, I 
 
TREATMENT OF THE TRAITORS. 
 
 i47 
 
 beg it to be distinctly understood that my remarks refer 
 only to those Muhammadans who peaceably accept the 
 British Rule. The foregoing Chapters establish the two 
 great facts of a standing Rebel Camp on the Frontier, 
 and a chronic conspiracy within the Empire. The English 
 Government can hold no parley with traitors in arms. 
 Those who appeal to the sword must perish by the sword. 
 Herr Teufelsdrockh’s simile of the Alpine hamlet, Peace 
 established in the bosom of Strength, applies in a nobler 
 sense to the Indian Empire ; and the first moment that 
 the English in that country cease to be able, from financial 
 or from any other reasons, to go to war upon a just cause, 
 they had better take shipping from the nearest ports. 
 
 With regard, also, to the traitors within our terri- 
 tory, justice must have free course; but justice tempered 
 with mercy, and mitigated by a knowledge of the not 
 ignoble motives which lead men, sincerely good according 
 to their lights, into treason. The powers of arrest granted 
 by the Legislature to the Executive enable the Govern- 
 ment to deal with the evil. The ringleaders suffer the 
 penalty of personal restraint, without obtaining the glory 
 of a public appearance on behalf of their faith. Even 
 those sentenced to transportation for life by the Courts 
 are treated with contemptuous leniency by the Govern- 
 ment, being generally returned in a few years to the 
 Muhammadan community, as apostates to the Wahabi 
 cause. Any attempt to stamp out the conspiracy by 
 wholesale prosecutions would fan the zeal of the fanatics 
 into a flame, and array on their side the sympathies of 
 all devout Musalmdns. The distempered class must be 
 segregated without the slightest feeling of resentment, 
 and indeed with the utmost gentleness, but with absolute 
 strength. 
 
1 48 THE MUSA LM AN COMPLAINT. 
 
 But while firm towards disaffection, we are bound to 
 see that no just cause exists for discontent. Such an 
 inquiry would with more dignity have been conducted 
 before pressure had been brought to bear from without. 
 Concessions made when confronted by a great conspiracy, 
 have small pretension to generosity or gracefulness. But 
 if in any matter we have hitherto done injustice to the 
 Muhammadans, it would be mischievous vanity to allow 
 considerations of this sort to delay our doing justice now. 
 The British Government of India is strong enough to be 
 spared the fear of being thought weak. It can shut up 
 the traitors in its jails, but it can segregate the whole 
 party of sedition in a nobler way — by detaching from it 
 the sympathies of the general Muhammadan community. 
 This, however, it can do only by removing that chronic 
 sense of wrong which has grown up in the hearts of the 
 Musalmans under British Rule. 
 
 For there is no use shutting our ears to the fact that 
 the Bengal Muhammadans arraign us on a list of charges 
 as serious as was ever brought against a Government. 
 They accuse us of having closed every honourable walk 
 of life to professors of their creed. They accuse us of 
 having introduced a system of education which leaves 
 their whole community unprovided for, and which has 
 landed it in contempt and beggary. They accuse us 
 of having brought misery into thousands of families, by 
 abolishing their Law Officers, who gave the sanction of 
 religion to the marriage tie, and who from time immemo- 
 rial have been the depositaries and administrators of the 
 Domestic Law of Islam. They accuse us of imperilling 
 their souls, by denying them the means of performing the 
 duties of their faith. Above all, they charge us with 
 deliberate malversation of their religious foundations, and 
 
THE MU SALMAN COMPLAINT. 
 
 149 
 
 with misappropriation on the largest scale of their educa- 
 tional funds. Besides these specific counts, which they 
 believe susceptible of proof, they have a host of senti- 
 mental grievances, perhaps of little weight with the un- 
 imaginative British mind, but which not less in India than 
 in Ireland keep the popular heart in a state of soreness 
 to the Rulers. They declare that we, who obtained 
 our footing in Bengal as the servants of a Muham- 
 madan Empire, have shown no pity in the time of our 
 triumph, and with the insolence of upstarts have trodden 
 our former masters into the mire. In a w T ord, the Indian 
 Musalnnins arraign the British Government for its want 
 of sympathy, for its want of magnanimity, for its mean 
 malversation of their funds, and for great public wrongs 
 spread over a period of one hundred years. 
 
 How far these charges are true, how far they are 
 inevitable, I propose at some length to inquire. But I 
 beg the reader to bring to this examination of our con- 
 duct towards the Muhammadans at large, a mind free 
 from any petty resentment against the section of them 
 whose misdeeds the foregoing chapters have recited. 
 Insurrection and fanatical ebullitions are the natural 
 incidents of an alien Rule ; and so long as the English 
 remain worthy of keeping India, they will know how to 
 deal alike with domestic traitors and with frontier rebels. 
 For my own part, once I have opened the case for the 
 Muhammadan community, I shall make no further refer- 
 ence to these misguided Wahabis. But in order that I 
 may afterwards keep silence about them, I shall here 
 quote certain statements by the two Englishmen who, of 
 all the present generation, are most competent to pro- 
 nounce on the connection between Musalm&n grievances 
 and Musalmdn seditions. In India, the line between 
 
* 5 ° 
 
 DISCONTENT BREEDS DISAFFECTION 
 
 sullen discontent and active disaffection is a very narrow 
 one, and our inattention to the wants of the peaceable 
 Muhammadans in Bengal has enlisted their sympathies 
 on the side of a class whom they would otherwise shrink 
 from as firebrands and rebels. 
 
 The officer in charge of the 'Wahabi prosecutions 1 
 lately wrote : ‘ I attribute the great hold which W ahabi 
 doctrines have on the mass of the Muhammadan peasantry 
 to our neglect of their education.’ He then goes on to 
 show how the absence of a career under our Rule 
 affects, in an equally pernicious way, the higher classes, 
 for whose instruction our schools do make some slight 
 provision. ‘ In the Amballa Trial will be found a case 
 exactly in point. ’Osman Ah, a man personally known to 
 me, says : “ About three years since I had occasion to go 
 to Jessor. There I met the Chief Bailiff of the Judge’s 
 Court. He asked me of my state. I said my fortunes 
 were much broken. He answered, ‘ You are an educated 
 man, and ought not to be in distress. If you like what I 
 am going to tell you, you will do well.’ I asked, ‘ What 
 is it ? ’ He replied, ‘Take your Scriptures in your hand, 
 and go into the neighbouring Districts, and preach the in- 
 junctions of your creed to the people; and when you see 
 likely men, induce them to go on the Crescentade.’ Accord- 
 ingly I preached throughout the neighbouring Districts. 
 Many people gave me money.” Here is a man who, from 
 what I have known of him, I believe preached partly from 
 belief and partly for money. The whole country has been 
 overrun by such men. They have excited the peasantry, 
 and the Ambeyla campaign has shown us that they are 
 not to be despised, and that the timid Bengali will, under 
 certain conditions, fight as fiercely as an Afghan.’ 
 
 1 Mr. James O'Kinealy, C.S. 
 
CAUSES OF DISCONTENT. 
 
 I 5 I 
 
 ‘Is it any subject for -wonder,’ writes a still higher 
 authority , 1 ‘that they have held aloof from a system 
 which, however good in itself, made no concession to 
 their prejudices, made in fact no provision for what 
 they esteemed their necessities, and which was in its 
 nature unavoidably antagonistic to their interests, and 
 at variance with all their social traditions ? 
 
 ‘ The educated Muhammadan, confident in his old 
 training, sees himself practically excluded from the share 
 of power and of the emoluments of Government which 
 he hitherto had almost monopolized, and sees these and 
 all the other advantages of life passed into the hands of 
 the hated Hindu. Discontent — a feeling if not of actual 
 religious persecution, yet of neglect on account (indirectly) 
 of his religious views — has fdled the minds of the better 
 educated. Their fanaticism, for which ample warrant can 
 always be found in the Kur&n, has been hotly excited, 
 until at last there is danger that the entire Muhammadan 
 community will rapidly be transformed into a mass of 
 disloyal ignorant fanatics on the one hand, with a small 
 class of men highly educated in a narrow fashion on the 
 other, highly fanatic, and not unwarrantably discontented, 
 exercising an enormous influence over their ignorant 
 fellow-Muhammadans.’ 
 
 But, indeed, from the highest official to the lowest 
 (and no one has penetrated into the wrongs of the Musal- 
 m&ns more deeply than the present Viceroy), there is now 
 a firm conviction that we have failed in our duty to the 
 Muhammadan subjects of the Queen. A great section of 
 the Indian population, some thirty millions in number, 
 
 1 Mr. E. C. Bayley, C.S.I., Secretary to the Government of India in the 
 Home Department, to whose scholarly sympathies the Musalm&ns owe a debt of 
 gratitude. 
 
152 
 
 DECAY OF THE MUSALMANS. 
 
 finds itself decaying under British Rule. They complain 
 that they, who but yesterday were the conquerors and 
 governors of the land, can find no subsistence in it 
 to-day. Any answer based on their own degeneracy is a 
 jpetitio jorincijrii, for their degeneracy is but one of the 
 results of our political ignorance and neglect. Before the 
 country passed under our rule, the Musalmfins professed 
 the same faith, ate the same food, and in all essentials 
 lived the same lives, as they do now. To this day they 
 exhibit at intervals their old intense feeling of nationality 
 and capability of warlike enterprise ; but in all other 
 respects they are a race ruined under British rule. 
 
 For this decay we are not entirely to blame. The 
 Musalmans can no longer, with due regard to the rights 
 of the Hindus, enjoy their former monopoly of Govern- 
 ment employ. This ancient source of wealth is dried 
 up, and the Muhammadans must take their chance under 
 a Government which knows no distinction of colour or 
 creed. As haughty and careless conquerors of India, 
 they managed the subordinate administration by Hindus, 
 but they kept all the higher appointments in their own 
 hands. For example, even after the enlightened reforms 
 of Akbar, the distribution of the great offices of State 
 stood thus : — Among the twelve highest appointments, 
 with the title 1 of Commander of more than Five Thou- 
 sand Horse, not one was a Hindu. 2 In the succeeding 
 grades, with the title of Commander of from Five Thou- 
 sand to Five Hundred Horse, out of 252 officers, only 31 
 were Hindus under Akbar. In the second next reign, 
 out of 609 Commanders of these grades, only 110 were 
 
 1 Mcinsab. See a very interesting but all too brief Pamphlet by Prof. 
 Blochmann, ‘ The Hindu Rajas under the Mughul Government.’ Calcutta, 1871. 
 
 2 Under the reign of Shahjahan. It should be remembered that these 
 Military Titles were held by the Officers of the Civil Administration. 
 
DEPRI VED OF GO VERNMENT EM PL OY. 153 
 
 Hindus ; and even among the lowest grades of the higher 
 appointments, out of 163 Commanders of from Five 
 Hundred to Two Hundred Horse, only 26 were Hindus. 
 
 It would be unreasonable for the Muhammadans to 
 expect any such monopoly of offices under the English 
 Government. But this is not their petition and complaint. 
 It is not that they have ceased to retain the entire State 
 Patronage, but that they are gradually being excluded 
 from it altogether. It is not that they must now take 
 an equal chance with the Hindus in the race of life, 
 but that, at least in Bengal, they have ceased to have a 
 chance at all. In short, it is a people with great tradi- 
 tions and without a career. When such a people have 
 co-religionists in India numbering thirty millions of men, 
 it becomes a question of not less importance to their 
 rulers than to themselves to know what to do with them. 
 
 The greater part of the peasant population through- 
 out Eastern Bengal is Muhammadan. In those districts of 
 overwhelming rivers and boundless swamps, the aborigines 
 were never admitted into the respectable Hindu com- 
 munity. The Aryan migration southwards had not pene- 
 trated in sufficient strength into the seaboard and Deltaic 
 tracts, to thoroughly pound down in the Brahmanical 
 mortar the earlier people of the soil. They accordingly 
 remained beyond the pale of Hinduism, out-castes fish- 
 ing in their remote estuaries, and reaping hazardous rice 
 crops from their flooded lands, without social status or 
 religious rites. 1 So impure are they, that a Brdhman 
 of the highest caste cannot settle among them without 
 taint, 2 and in a few generations his descendants cease 
 
 1 I speak of the Districts south of Dacca and Vikrampur, the last great 
 Brahmanical settlement in the Delta. 
 
 2 This I ascertained by personal inquiry in Faridpur District, Backarganj, 
 and the Sundarbans. 
 
iS4 MUSALMAN PEASANTRY OF THE DELTA. 
 
 to have the jus connubii with the Br&hman community 
 a few days’ journey to the north, from which they 
 sprang . 1 The Muhammadans recognised no such dis- 
 tinctions. They came down upon the country, some- 
 times as military colonists, sometimes as heads of great 
 reclamation enterprises in the Deltaic Districts. Even in 
 an old settled District like Jessor, the earliest traditions 
 begin with an enterprise of the latter sort . 2 As the 
 primeval heroes of the inner parts of India slew monster 
 beasts, quelled demon tribes, and hewed down the all- 
 covering forest ; so the first object that looms on the pre- 
 historic horizon in Deltaic tracts, is the man who pushed 
 forward tillage into regions formerly the prey of the sea. 
 
 The Musalmdns led several of these great land re- 
 clamation colonies to the southward, and have left their 
 names in Eastern Bengal as the first dividers of the water 
 from the land. The sportsman comes across their dykes, 
 and metalled roads, and mosques, and tanks, and tombs, 
 in the loneliest recesses of the jungle ; and wherever they 
 went, they spread their faith, partly by the sword, but 
 chiefly by a bold appeal to the two great instincts of the 
 popular heart. The Hindus had never admitted the 
 amphibious population of the Delta within the pale of 
 their community. The Muhammadans offered the plenary 
 privileges of Isldm to Brdhman and outcaste alike. 
 
 ‘ Down on your knees, every one of you,’ preached 
 these fierce missionaries, £ before the Almighty, in whose 
 sight all men are equal, all created beings as the dust of 
 the earth. There is no God but the one God, and His 
 
 1 On the ground that they have lived among, and in some cases acted as 
 priests to, a low chandal population. 
 
 2 Report on the District of Jessor, by Mr. James Westland, C.S. — by far 
 the best account of an Indian Deltaic District that has yet appeared. Calcutta, 
 1871. 
 
THE MUSALMAN ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 i55 
 
 Messenger is Muhammad.’ The battle-cry of the warrior 
 became, as soon as the conquest was over, the text of the 
 divine. 
 
 To this day the peasantry of the Delta is Muham- 
 madan. So firmly did Isldm take hold of Lower Bengal, 
 that it has developed a religious literature and a popular 
 dialect of its own. The patois known as Musalmdn Bengali 
 is as distinct from the Urdu of Upper India, as Urdu is 
 different from the Persian of Herat. Interspersed among 
 these rural masses are landed houses of ancient pedigree 
 and of great influence. Indeed, the remains of a once 
 powerful and grasping Musalmdn aristocracy dot the whole 
 Province, visible monuments of their departed greatness. 
 At Murshidabad a Muhammadan Court still plays its 
 farce of mimic state, and in every District the descen- 
 dant of some line of princes sullenly and proudly eats 
 his heart out among roofless palaces and weed- choked 
 tanks. Of such families I have personally known several. 
 Their ruined mansions swarm with grown-up sons and 
 daughters, with grandchildren and nephews and nieces, 
 and not one of the hungry crowd has a chance of doing 
 anything for himself in life. They drag on a listless exist- 
 ence in patched-up verandahs or leaky outhouses, sink- 
 ing deeper and deeper into a hopeless abyss of debt, till 
 the neighbouring Hindu money-lender fixes a quarrel on 
 them, and then in a moment a host of mortgages fore- 
 close, and the ancient Musalmdn family is suddenly 
 swallowed up and disappears for ever. 
 
 If an individual instance be demanded, I would cite 
 the Rdjds of Nagar. When the British first came into 
 contact with them, their yearly revenues, after two 
 centuries of folly and waste, amounted to fifty thousand 
 pounds. From the pillared gallery of their palace the 
 
156 
 
 A FALLEN MUSALMAN HOUSE. 
 
 Rtljas looked across a principality which now makes up 
 two English Districts. Their mosques and countless 
 summer pavilions glittered round the margin of an arti- 
 ficial lake, and cast their reflections on its surface, 
 unbroken by a single water - weed. A gilded barge 
 proudly cut its way between the private staircases and 
 an island in the centre covered with flowering shrubs. 
 Soldiers relieved guard on the citadel ; and ever, as the 
 sun declined, the laugh of many children and the tinkling 
 of ladies’ lutes rose from behind the wall of the Princesses' 
 garden. Of the citadel nothing now remains but the 
 massive entrance. From the roofless walls of the mosque 
 the last stucco ornament has long since tumbled down. 
 The broad gardens with their trim canals have returned 
 to jungle or been converted into rice-fields. Their well- 
 stocked fish ponds are dank, filthy hollows. The sites 
 of the summer pavilions are marked by mounds of brick 
 dust, with here and there a fragmentary wall, whose 
 slightly arched Moorish window looks down desolately 
 upon the scene. 
 
 But most melancholy of all is the ancient Royal Lake. 
 The palace rises from its margin, not, as of old, a fairy 
 pillared edifice, but a dungeon-looking building, whose 
 weather-stained walls form a fitting continuation to the 
 green scum which putrefies on the water below . 1 The 
 gallery is a tottering deserted place. The wretched 
 women who bedeck themselves with the title of princesses 2 
 no more go forth in the covered barge at evening. Their 
 luxurious zenana is roofless, and its inhabitants have been 
 removed to a mean tenement overlooking a decayed stable- 
 
 1 I describe the buildings and tank as I saw them in 1864. Since then, I 
 hear that the latter has been cleaned, and the former fallen deeper into decay. 
 
 2 Ranis. 
 
A FALLEN MUSALMAN HOUSE. 
 
 *57 
 
 yard. Of all the bygone grandeur of the House of Nagar, 
 a little watercourse alone remains unchanged, holding 
 its way through the dank solitudes in the same channel 
 by which it flowed amid the ancient palaces, and remind- 
 ing the spectator in its miniature way of the one immut- 
 able relic of antiquity in Rome : 
 
 ‘ Ne ought save Tyber hast’ning to his fall 
 Remaines of all : 0 world’s inconstancie ! 
 
 That which is firme doth flit and fall away, 
 
 And that is flitting doth abide and stay.’ 1 
 
 In a corner of the dilapidated palace, the representa- 
 tive of the race mopes away his miserable days, chewing 
 drugged sweetmeats, and looking dreamily out on the 
 weed-choked lake. If any statesman wishes to make a 
 sensation in the House of Commons, he has only to truly 
 narrate the history of one of these Muhammadan families 
 of Bengal. He would first depict the ancient venerable 
 Prince ruling over a wide territory at the head of his own 
 army, waited on through life by a numerous household, 
 with all the stately formality of an Eastern Court, and his 
 death-bed soothed by founding mosques and devising 
 religious trusts. He would then portray the half-idiot 
 descendant of the present time, who hides away when he 
 hears of an English shooting party in his jungles, and 
 when at length dragged forth by his servants to pay the 
 courtesy due to the strangers, lapses into a monotonous 
 whimper about some tradesman’s execution for a few 
 hundred rupees which has just taken place in his palace. 
 
 I have dwelt at some length on the Musalman pea- 
 santry and the Musalmdn aristocracy of Bengal, in order 
 to bring clearly before the English eye the class of people 
 with whose grievances this chapter deals. I would further 
 
 1 Spenser’s Ruines of Rome, by Bellay. 
 
i 5 S DECAY OF MUHAMMADAN FAMILIES. 
 
 premise that my remarks apply only to Lower Bengal, 
 the Province with which I am best acquainted, and in 
 which, so far as I can learn, the Muhammadans have 
 suffered most severely under British Rule. I should be 
 sorry to believe, or to convey to the reader the belief, that 
 the following remarks were predicable of all the Muham- 
 madans of India. 
 
 If ever a people stood in need of a career, it is the 
 Musalmhn aristocracy of Lower Bengal. Their old sources 
 of wealth have run dry. They can no longer sack the 
 stronghold of a neighbouring Hindu nobleman ; send out 
 a score of troopers to pillage the peasantry; levy tolls 
 upon travelling merchants ; purchase exemption through 
 a friend at Court from their land-tax ; raise a revenue by 
 local cesses on marriages, births, harvest-homes, and every 
 other incident of rural life ; collect the excise on their 
 own behoof, with further gratifications for winking at the 
 sale of forbidden liquors during the sacred month of 
 Ramazbn. The administration of the Imperial Taxes was 
 the first great source of income in Bengal, and the Musal- 
 man aristocracy monopolized it . 1 The Police was another 
 great source of income, and the Police was officered by 
 Muhammadans. The Courts of Law were a third great 
 source of income, and the Musalmans monopolized them. 
 Above all, there was the army, an army not officered by 
 gentlemen who make little more than bank interest on 
 the price of their commissions, but a great confederation 
 of conquerors who enrolled their peasantry into troops, 
 and drew pay from the State for them as soldiers. A 
 hundred and seventy years ago it was almost impossible 
 for a well-born Musalman in Bengal to become poor; at 
 present it is almost impossible for him to continue rich. 
 
 1 This is subject to the explanation given further on. 
 
CA USES OF THEIR DEC A Y 
 
 *59 
 
 The Muhammadan aristocracy, in short, were con- 
 querors, and claimed as such the monopoly of Government. 
 Occasionally a Hindu financier, and more seldom a Hindu 
 general, came to the surface j 1 but the conspicuousness of 
 such instances is the best proof of their rarity. Three 
 distinct streams of wealth ran perennially into the coffers 
 of a noble Musalm&n House — Military Command, the 
 Collection of the Revenue, and Judicial or Political Em- 
 ploy. These were its legitimate sources of greatness, and 
 besides them were Court Services, and a hundred nameless 
 avenues to fortune. The latter I have indicated at the 
 beginning of the last paragraph, and of them I shall not 
 further speak ; but, confining myself to the three fair and 
 ostensible monopolies of official life, I shall examine what 
 remains of them to the Musalmdn families of Lower Bengal 
 under British Rule. 
 
 The first of them, the Army, is now completely 
 closed. No Muhammadan gentleman of birth can enter 
 our Regiments ; and even if a place could be found for 
 him in our military system, that place would no longer be 
 a source of wealth . 2 Personally, I believe that, sooner or 
 later, the native aristocracy of India must, under certain 
 
 1 Whenever they did, great was the discontent among the Musalmans. In 
 the two best known cases, that of Raja Todar Mall the Financier, and Raja 
 Man Singh the General, formal deputations of remonstrance were sent to Court. 
 In the case of Man Singh, some of the Muhammadan Generals refused to serve 
 under him in the Expedition against Rana Pratab. I have already given the 
 statistics of the Hindus who rose to conspicuous offices under the least bigoted 
 of the Musalman monarchs. 
 
 2 A very few Muhammadan gentlemen hold commissions from the Governor- 
 General, but, so far as I can learn, not one from the Queen. A native of India 
 can only enter the Army as a private soldier, and the rare individual instances 
 of men promoted from the ranks by a merely local commission form no excep- 
 tion to the rule. The single case of a Muhammadan obtaining even the honorary 
 rank of Captain is Captain Hiddyat Ah', who was brought forward by Colonel 
 Rattray during the mutiny, — a Muhammadan gentleman in every respect worthy 
 to hold Her Majesty’s commission, as I can by personal knowledge of himself 
 and of his deeds attest. 
 
i6o 
 
 EXCLUDED FROM THE ARMY. 
 
 restrictions, be admitted as Commissioned Officers in the 
 British Army . 1 The supreme command of any regiment 
 must always be vested in an Englishman. Indeed, great 
 care would be required before the experiment can be 
 entered upon at all ; but the warlike peoples of Northern 
 India could turn out under their own hereditary leaders, 
 a light cavalry second to none in the world. Such 
 employment would be eagerly sought after. No com- 
 missioned officer now-a-days expects to make a fortune 
 by serving the Queen, and the Muhammadans are per- 
 fectly aware of this. But they covet the honours and 
 decent emoluments of a military career, and bitterly feel 
 that their hereditary occupation is gone. 
 
 The second support of the Musalmdn aristocracy was 
 the collection of the Land Revenue. This monopoly had 
 its roots deep in the canon and public law of Islam. The 
 payment of taxes was a badge of conquest ; and to the 
 conquerors accrued not only the revenue, but also the 
 profitable duty of collecting it. It can never be too often 
 insisted upon, however, that in India the relation of the 
 conquerors to the native population was regulated rather 
 by political necessity than by the Muhammadan Code. 
 The haughty foreigners despised the details of collection, 
 and left it to their Hindu bailiffs to deal directly with the 
 peasantry. So universal was this system, that Akbar suc- 
 cessfully defended the selection of a Hindu for his Minister 
 of Finance by referring to it. On Todar Mali’s appoint- 
 ment as Chancellor of the Empire, the Musalmdn princes 
 sent a deputation to remonstrate. ‘ Who manages your 
 properties and grants of land ? ’ replied the Emperor. ‘ Our 
 
 1 Among the exponents of this view, I -would particularly cite the most 
 recent and the ablest — Captain Osborn of the Bengal Cavalry, in the columns 
 of the Calcutta Observer. 
 
THEIR FORMER FISCAL MONOPOLY. 
 
 161 
 
 Hindu agents,’ they answered. ‘ Yery good,’ said Akbar; 
 
 ‘ allow me also to appoint a Hindu to manage my estates.’ 
 While the higher fiscal posts remained in the hands 
 of the Musalmans, the direct dealing with the husbandman 
 was thus vested in their Hindu bailiffs. The Hindus, in 
 fact, formed a subordinate Revenue Service, and took 
 their share of the profits before passing the collections on 
 to their Muhammadan superiors. The latter, however, 
 were responsible to the Emperor, and formed a very 
 essential link in the Muhammadan fiscal system. They 
 enforced the Land Tax, not by any process of the Civil 
 Courts, but by the sharp swords of troopers. Arrears were 
 realized by quartering a marauding banditti upon a Dis- 
 trict, who harried the villages till the last penny was paid 
 up. The husbandmen and Hindu bailiffs constantly tried 
 to get off at less than the fixed sum ; the superior Musal- 
 man officers ceaselessly endeavoured to extort more than it . 1 
 
 The English obtained Bengal simply as the Chief 
 Revenue Officer of the Dehli Emperor. Instead of buying 
 the appointment by a fat bribe, we won it by the sword. 
 But our legal title was simply that of the Emperor’s 
 Diwdn or Chief Revenue Officer . 2 As such, the Musal- 
 mans hold that we were bound to carry out the Muham- 
 madan system which we then undertook to administer. 
 There can be little doubt, I think, that both parties to 
 the treaty at the time understood this , 3 although the 
 Grants and Treaties do not in my opinion bind us down. 
 
 1 Curious illustrations of this perennial conflict occur in Mr. Westland’s 
 recent report on Jessor, and may be foimd in the rural archives of almost 
 every District of Bengal. 
 
 2 See the Firmans of 12th August 1765, in Mr. Aitchison’s Treaties, or in the 
 Quarto Collection put forth by the East India Company in 1812, Nos. xvi. to xx. 
 
 3 ‘We took it under a kind of promise to carry on the Musalman Rule as 
 it then existed,’ writes the Officer in charge of the Wahdbi Prosecutions, ‘ and 
 we did so.’ 
 
 L 
 
1 62 WE BREAK THROUGH THER MONOPOLY. 
 
 For some years the English maintained the Muhammadan 
 officers in their posts ; and when they began to venture 
 upon reforms, they did so with a caution bordering upon 
 timidity. The greatest blow which we dealt to the old 
 system was in one sense an underhand one, for neither 
 the English nor the Muhammadans foresaw its effects. 
 This was the series of changes introduced by Lord Corn- 
 wallis and John Shore, ending in the Permanent Settle- 
 ment of 1793. By it we usurped the functions of those 
 higher Musalman Officers who had formerly subsisted 
 between the actual Collector and the Government, and 
 wffiose dragoons were the recognised machinery for enforc- 
 ing the Land-Tax. Instead of the Musalman Revenue- 
 farmers with their troopers and spearmen, we placed an 
 English Collector in each District, with an unarmed fiscal 
 police attached like common bailiffs to his Court. The 
 Muhammadan nobility either lost their former connection 
 with the Land-Tax, or became mere landholders, with an 
 inelastic title to a part of the profits of the soil. 
 
 The Permanent Settlement, however, consummated 
 rather than introduced this change. It was in another 
 respect that it most seriously damaged the position of 
 the great Muhammadan Houses. For the whole ten- 
 dency of the Settlement was to acknowledge as the land- 
 holders the subordinate Hindu officers who dealt directly 
 with the husbandmen. I have carefully gone over the 
 ms. Settlement Reports of 1788-1790; and notwithstand- 
 ing the clauses touching intermediate holders in the Code 
 of 1793, it is quite clear to me that our Revenue Officers 
 of those da} r s had an eye to only three links in the pre- 
 vious system — the State, the local agent or landholder 
 who collected direct from the peasantry, and the hus- 
 bandman who tilled the soil. These were the three fea- 
 
OUR FIRST BREACH OF FAITH 163 
 
 tures of the former administration requisite to our new 
 plan, and by degrees all the other links of the Muham- 
 madan Revenue System were either extruded or allowed 
 to drop out. For example, the provisions respecting the 
 separation of Independent Talukddrs, or subordinate 
 tenure-holders who held from the superior Musalmdn lord 
 by a perpetual lease, and paid their Land-Tax direct to the 
 State, were in themselves fatal to the greatness of .many 
 a Muhammadan House. Such a family, although it might 
 grant away part of its territory in permanent farm, always 
 exercised a sort of jurisdiction over its subordinate holders, 
 and, when occasion demanded, managed to extract cesses 
 or benevolences, in short money in one form or another, 
 from them. The officer who has studied the Permanent 
 Settlement most minutely in connection with the present 
 Muhammadan disaffection writes thus : ‘ It elevated the 
 Hindu collectors, who up to that time had held but un- 
 important posts, to the position of landholders, gave 
 them a proprietary right in the soil, and allowed them 
 to accumulate wealth which would have gone to the 
 Musalmdns under their own Rule .’ 1 
 
 This, then, is the first public wrong on which the 
 Muhammadan aristocracy arraign the British Govern- 
 ment. They assert that we obtained the Administration 
 of Bengal from a Musalmdn Emperor on the understand- 
 ing that we would carry out the Musalmdn system, and 
 that as soon as we found ourselves strong enough we 
 broke through this engagement. Our reply is, that when 
 we came to look into the Muhammadan Administration 
 of Bengal, we found it so one-sided, so corrupt, so abso- 
 lutely shocking to every principle of humanity, that we 
 should have been a disgrace to civilisation had we re- 
 1 Mr. James O’Kinealy, C.S. 
 
164 
 
 OUR FIRST BREACH OF FAITH. 
 
 tained it. We can prove from the records of every Dis- 
 trict, that Revenue was the sole object of the Musalm&n 
 Government. ‘ Almost all the functions of Administra- 
 tion were heaped upon the Collectors of the Land-Tax, 
 and they might do pretty much as they pleased so long 
 as they discharged their revenue. The people were op- 
 pressed in order that the landholder might have his rent, 
 and were plundered in order that the landholder’s ser- 
 vants might become rich. Complaint against wrong was 
 useless. The landholder or his officer had it entirely in 
 his own option whether he should listen to it or not ; and 
 the complainant had very little chance of relief, for the op- 
 pressor was often the landholder’s servant, and the plun- 
 derer, even if they took the trouble to trace him, would 
 not find it difficult to make friends with his captors .’ 1 
 
 The truth is, that under the Muhammadans, govern- 
 ment was an engine for enriching the few, not for protect- 
 ing the many. It never seems to have touched the hearts 
 or moved the consciences of the rulers, that a vast popu- 
 lation of husbandmen was toiling bare-backed in the heat 
 of summer and in the rain of autumn, in order that a 
 few families in each District might lead lives of luxurious 
 ease. It is only after we had begun to break away from 
 the sj^stem which we had virtually engaged to uphold, 
 that the existence of the People discloses itself. The 
 greatest wrong which we did to the Musalman aristocracy 
 was in defining their rights. Up to that period their title 
 
 1 Mr. Westland’s District of Jessor, p. 67. I refrain ■with difficulty from 
 frequent reference to my Annals of Rural Bengal, and shall only add, that till 
 arrangements are made for bringing the Bengal Records into intelligent con- 
 tact with the European world, the Indian Government continues guilty of a 
 great historical injustice to the British nation. But perhaps a Government 
 which subverted a Power more extensive than that before which the majesty 
 of Rome itself fell back, and which has built out of the shattered creeds and 
 oppressed peoples of India a prosperous Empire, may be pardoned a noble 
 indifference to the written memorials of its glory. 
 
FIRST TWO CAUSES OF THEIR RUIN. 165 
 
 had not been permanent, but neither had it been fixed. 
 At a costly sacrifice of the acknowledged claims of the 
 ruling power, we gave them their tenures in perpetuity ; 
 but in doing so, we rendered these tenures inelastic. A 
 race of men accustomed for centuries to the privilege of 
 contemptuous plunder, could not, however, learn the 
 peaceful art of managing their estates by the stroke of 
 a Governor-General’s pen. The Musalman monopoly of 
 rural oppression ceased, and the Resumption Laws thirty 
 years later put a finishing stroke to their fortunes. To 
 these laws I shall have to devote some paragraphs further 
 on, and at present shall only say that they enriched the 
 State by means of a stricter construction of title-deeds 
 than the Muhammadans had ever been accustomed to 
 under their own Emperors. During the last seventy-five 
 years the Musalm&n Houses of Bengal have either disap- 
 peared from the earth, or are at this moment being sub- 
 merged beneath the new strata of society which our Rule 
 has developed — haughty, insolent, indolent, but still the 
 descendants of nobles and conquerors to the last. 
 
 With regard, therefore, to the first two great sources 
 of Muhammadan wealth, viz. the Army and the higher ad- 
 ministration of the Revenues, we had good reasons for what 
 we did, but our action has brought ruin upon Muham- 
 madan Houses of Bengal. We shut the Musalman aris- 
 tocracy out of the Army, because we believed that their 
 exclusion was necessary to our own safety. We deprived 
 them of their monopoly of the most lucrative functions in 
 the Administration, because their deprivation was essen- 
 tial to the welfare and just government of the people. 
 But these grounds, however good in themselves, fail to 
 convince an ancient nobility suffering under the blight of 
 British Rule. Their exclusion from the Army seems to 
 
i66 
 
 THEIR LOSS OF OFFICIAL EMPLOY. 
 
 the Musalmdns a great public wrong ; our departure from 
 their ancient fiscal system, an absolute breach of faith. 
 
 The third source of their greatness was their monopoly 
 of Judicial, Political, or in brief, Civil Employ. It would 
 be unfair to lay much stress on the circumstance, but it 
 is nevertheless a significant fact, that none of the native 
 gentlemen who have won their way into the Covenanted 
 Civil Service, or up to the bench of the High Court, are 
 Musalmdns. Yet for some time after the country passed 
 under our care, the Musalmans retained all the functions 
 of Government in their own hands. Musalmdn Collectors, 
 as we have seen, gathered the Land - Tax ; Musalmdn 
 Faujddrs and Ghdtwdls officered the Police. A great 
 Musalmdn Department, with its headquarters in the 
 Nizdm’s palace at Murshidabdd, and a network of officials 
 spreading over every District in the Province, administered 
 the Criminal Law. Musalmdn jailors took bribes from, 
 or starved at their discretion, the whole prison population 
 of Bengal. Kdzis or Muhammadan Doctors of Law sat in 
 the Civil and Domestic Courts. Even when we attempted 
 to do justice by means of trained English officers, the 
 Muhammadan Law Doctors sat with them as their autho- 
 ritative advisers on points of law. The Code of Islam 
 remained the law of the land, and the whole ministerial 
 and subordinate offices of Government continued the 
 property of the Musalmdns. They alone could speak the 
 official language, and they alone could read the official 
 records written in the Persian current hand . 1 The 
 Cornwallis Code broke this monopoly less violently in the 
 Judicial than in the Revenue departments; but for the 
 first fifty years of the Company’s Rule the Musalmdns 
 
 1 Shikastah, literally broken, an abominable sort of shorthand with the 
 vowels left out. 
 
EXCLUSION FROM OFFICIAL LIFE. 
 
 167 
 
 had the lion’s share of State patronage. During its 
 second half century of power the tide turned, at first 
 slowly, but with a constantly accelerating pace, as the 
 imperative duty of conducting public business in the ver- 
 nacular of the people, and not in the foreign patois of its 
 former Muhammadan conquerors, became recognised. 
 Then the Hindus poured into, and have since completely 
 filled, every grade of official life. Even in the District 
 Collectorates of Lower Bengal, where it is still possible 
 to give appointments in the old-fashioned friendly way, 
 there are very few young Musalmdn officials . 1 The 
 Muhammadans who yet remain in them are white-bearded 
 men, and they have no successors. Even ten years ago, 
 the Musalmdns invariably managed to transmit the post 
 of Ndzir, or Chief of the Revenue Bailiffs, to men of their 
 own creed ; but now one or two unpopular appointments 
 about the jail are the most that the former masters of 
 India can hope for. The staff of Clerks attached to the 
 various offices, the responsible posts in the Courts, and 
 even the higher offices in the Police, are recruited from 
 the pushing Hindu youth of the Government School . 2 
 
 Proceeding from the unconspicuous mass of non- 
 gazetted officials to the higher grades, the question passes 
 from the sphere of individual observation into the unques- 
 tionable domain of statistics. Two years ago I put forth 
 a series of articles , 3 showing how completely the Judicial 
 and Revenue Services in Bengal, in which the appointments 
 are greatly coveted, and the distribution of patronage 
 closely watched, had been denuded of Musalmdns. These 
 
 1 Amlah. 
 
 2 These remarks apply to the whole Province of Bengal, but with special 
 force to every District of it, excepting those of the Bhagalpur and Patna 
 Divisions. 
 
 3 In the Pioneer , the leading journal of the North-West Provinces. I have 
 freely used these articles in this Chapter. 
 
i68 
 
 STATISTICS OF CIVIL EMPLOY. 
 
 articles were immediately translated into Persian, and 
 copied into or discussed by many of the Anglo-Indian 
 and vernacular papers. A Commission was issued by the 
 Bengal Government to inquire into the higher class edu- 
 cation of the Muhammadans in Calcutta ; but the net result 
 has been, that the Musalmbn element in the public service 
 has gone on growing weaker every year, just as before. 
 
 This statement the following statistics will prove. 
 In the highest grade in which the appointments dated 
 from a previous generation, the Muhammadans had not 
 much to complain of, as in April 1869 there was one 
 Musalman to two Hindus : there is now but one Musal- 
 man to three Hindus. In the second grade there were 
 then two Muhammadans to nine Hindus ; there is now 
 one Musalman to ten Hindus. In the third grade there 
 were then four Musalmans to a total of twenty-seven 
 Hindus and Englishmen ; there are now three Musalmans 
 to a total of twenty-four Hindus and Englishmen. Passing 
 down to the lower ranks, there were in 1869 four Musal- 
 mdns among a total of thirty of all creeds ; there are now 
 four among a total of thirty-nine. Among the proba- 
 tioners from whom the service is recruited, there were 
 only two Musalmans in a total of twenty-eight ; there is 
 now not a single Muhammadan in this rank. 
 
 It is, how r ever, in the less conspicuous Departments, 
 in which the distribution of patronage is less keenly 
 watched by the political parties in Bengal, that we may 
 read the fate of the Musalmbns. In 1869 these Depart- 
 ments were filled thus : — In the three grades of Assistant 
 Government Engineers there were fourteen Hindus and 
 not one Musalman; among the apprentices there were 
 four Hindus and two Englishmen, and not one Musalmbn. 
 Among the sub-Engineers and Supervisors of the Public 
 
STATISTICS OF CIVIL EMPLOY. 
 
 169 
 
 Works Department there were twenty-four Hindus to 
 one Musalmdn ; among the Overseers, two Musalmdns to 
 sixty-three Hindus. In the Offices of Account there were 
 fifty names of Hindus, and not one Musalmdn ; and in the 
 Upper Subordinate Department there were twenty-two 
 Hindus, and again not one Musalmdn. 
 
 But it is unnecessary to multiply instances of a fact 
 that is patent in every page of the Civil List. I have 
 made up a table of the gazetted appointments for which 
 Englishmen, Muhammadans, and Hindus are alike eligible : 
 
 DISTRIBUTION OF STATE PATRONAGE IN BENGAL, April 1871. 
 
 
 Euro- 
 
 peans. 
 
 Hindus. 
 
 Mu sal- 
 mons. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Covenanted Civil Service (appointed in England 
 
 
 
 
 
 by the Crown), ...... 
 
 260 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 260 
 
 Judicial Officers in the Non-Regulation Districts, 1 
 
 47 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 47 
 
 Extra Assistant Commissioners, .... 
 
 26 
 
 7 
 
 0 
 
 33 
 
 Deputy-Magistrates and Deputy-Collectors, . 
 
 53 
 
 113 
 
 30 
 
 196 
 
 Income-Tax Assessors, ..... 
 
 11 
 
 43 
 
 6 
 
 60 
 
 Registration Department, ..... 
 
 33 
 
 25 
 
 2 
 
 60 
 
 Judges of Small Cause Court and Subordinate 
 
 
 
 
 
 Judges, ....... 
 
 14 
 
 25 
 
 8 
 
 47 
 
 Munsifs, . . ...... 
 
 1 
 
 178 
 
 37 
 
 216 
 
 Police Department, Gazetted Officers of all grades, 
 
 106 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 109 
 
 Public Works Department, Engineer Establishment, 
 
 154 
 
 19 
 
 0 
 
 173 
 
 ,, ,, Subordinate Establishment, 
 
 72 
 
 125 
 
 4 
 
 201 
 
 ,, ,, Account Establishment, 
 
 22 
 
 54 
 
 0 
 
 76 
 
 Medical Department, Officers attached to Medical 
 
 
 
 
 
 College, Jails, Charitable Dispensaries, Sanita- 
 
 
 
 
 
 tion and Vaccination Establishments, andMedi- 
 
 
 
 
 
 cal Officers in charge of Districts, etc. etc., . 
 
 89 
 
 65 
 
 4 
 
 158 
 
 Department of Public Instruction, 
 
 38 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 53 
 
 Other Departments, such as Customs, Marine, 
 
 
 
 
 
 Survey, Opium, 2 etc., 
 
 412 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 422 
 
 Total, . 
 
 1338 
 
 681 
 
 92 
 
 2111 
 
 1 This and the following grades receive their appointments from the Local 
 Government. 
 
 2 But exclusive of the Ecclesiastical Establishment. Some of the Opium 
 Officers are not gazetted. 
 
1 7 o SHUT 0 UT FR OM THE PR OFESSIONS. 
 
 A hundred years ago, the Musalmans monopolized 
 all the important offices of State. The Hindus accepted 
 with thanks such crumbs as their former conquerors 
 dropped from their table, and the English were repre- 
 sented by a few factors and clerks. The proportion of 
 Muhammadans to Hindus, as shown above, is now less than 
 one-seventh. The proportion of Hindus to Europeans 
 is more than one-half; the proportion of Musalm&ns to 
 Europeans is less than one-fourteenth. The proportion 
 of the race which a century ago had the monopoly of 
 Government, has now fallen to less than one-twenty-third 
 of the whole administrative body. This, too, in the 
 gazetted appointments, where the distribution of patron- 
 age is closely watched. In the less conspicuous office 
 establishments in the Presidency Town, the exclusion of 
 Musalmdns is even more complete. In one extensive 
 Department the other day it was discovered that there 
 was not a single employe who could read the Musalman 
 dialect ; and, in fact, there is now scarcely a Government 
 office in Calcutta in which a Muhammadan can hope for 
 any post above the rank of porter, messenger, filler of ink- 
 pots, and mender of pens. 
 
 Is it that the Hindus have all along been better 
 men than the Musalmans, and only required a fair field 
 in order to outstrip them in the race ? Or is it that 
 the Musalmans have so many careers open to them in 
 non-official life, that they are indifferent to Government 
 employment, and leave the Hindus to walk over the 
 course ? The Hindu has unquestionably a high order of 
 intellect; but an universal and immeasurable superiority 
 on the part of the Hindus, such as would be required to 
 explain their monopoly of official preferment, is unknown 
 at the present day, and is in direct contradiction to their 
 
STATISTICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 171 
 
 past history. The truth is, that when the country passed 
 under our rule, the Musalm&ns were the superior race, and 
 superior not only in stoutness of heart and strength of 
 arm, but in power of political organization, and in the 
 science of practical government. Yet the Muhammadans 
 are now shut out equally from Government employ and 
 from the higher occupations of non-official life. 
 
 The only secular profession open to well-born Muham- 
 madans is the Law. Medicine falls under a different cate- 
 gory, as I shall afterwards show. Now the Law is even 
 more strictly closed to the Muhammadans than the official 
 services. Among the Judges of Her Majesty’s High Court 
 of Judicature in Bengal are two Hindus, 1 but no Musalman. 
 Indeed, the idea of a High Court Judge being taken from 
 the race that once monopolized the whole administration 
 of justice, is inconceivable alike to Anglo-Indians and to 
 Hindus at the present day. In 1869, when I last made up 
 the statistics of the Indian Professions, they stood thus: — 
 The Law Officers of the Crown were six in number — 
 four Englishmen, two Hindus, and no Musalman. Among 
 the Officers of the High Court of sufficient rank to have 
 their names published, twenty-one in number, there were 
 seven Hindu gentlemen, and not one Musalmdn. Among 
 the Barristers-at-Law were three Hindus (now greatly in- 
 creased, I believe), and not one Musalman. 
 
 But the list of Pleaders of the High Court, a sort of 
 subordinate Barristers, tells the most cruel story of all. 
 This was a branch of the Profession almost completely in 
 the hands of the Musalmdns within the memory of men 
 still living. The present list dates from 1834, and the 
 surviving Pleaders of that year consisted in 1869 of one 
 
 1 These gentlemen rank among the first grade of public servants ; their 
 salary is £5000 a year. 
 
172 STATISTICS OF THE LAW. 
 
 Englishman, one Hindu, and two Musalmans. Up to 
 1838 the Musalmans were almost as numerous as the 
 Hindus and English put together, the proportion being 
 six of the former to seven of both the latter. Of the 
 Pleaders admitted between 1845 and 1850 inclusive, the 
 whole survivors in 1869 were Musalmans. Even as late 
 as 1851 the Muhammadans stoutly held their own, and in 
 fact equal the whole number of the English and Hindu 
 Pleaders put together. From 1851 the scene changes. A 
 new order of men began to come to the front. Different 
 tests of fitness were exacted, and the list shows that out 
 of two hundred and forty natives admitted from 1852 
 to 1868, two hundred and thirty-nine were Hindus, and 
 only one a Musalman. 
 
 Passing to the next grade in the Profession, the 
 Attorneys, Proctors, and Solicitors of the High Court, 1 
 there were in 1869 twenty-seven Hindus and not one 
 Musalman ; while among the rising generation of articled 
 clerks there were twenty-six Hindus, and again not 
 one Musalman. It matters not to wffiat department of 
 the Profession I turn, the result is the same. In the 
 Office of the Registrar of the High Court there were in 
 1869 seventeen employes of sufficient standing to have 
 their names published. Six of them were Englishmen or 
 East Indians, eleven were Hindus, and not one was a 
 Musalmdn. In the Receiver’s Office four names were 
 given, two Englishmen and two Hindus, but no Musal- 
 man. In the Office of the Clerk of the Crown and Taxing 
 Officer were four Englishmen and five Hindus, but no 
 Musalman. In all the nooks and crannies of the law, 
 in the Offices of Account, the Sheriff’s Office, Coroner’s 
 Office, and Office of Interpreters, twenty names were 
 
 1 On the side of Original Jurisdiction. 
 
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 
 
 173 
 
 given — eight Englishmen, eleven Hindus, and one Musal- 
 mdn, the sole representative of the Muhammadan popu- 
 lation on the list, and he a miserable maula x on six 
 shillings a week. 
 
 The Profession of Medicine remains. But unhappily, 
 Medicine, as practised by the native doctors, scarcely 
 ranks as a Profession among the upper classes of Muham- 
 madans. A Musalmdn gentleman has two medical attend- 
 ants. The one is a physician who, under the name of 
 Tab lb , or, as he is generally designated by English writers, 
 Hahivi , receives honourable entertainment from his em- 
 ployers. The other is the Jarrcih , which in simple English 
 means barber. It is he who performs all surgical opera- 
 tions, from shaving to amputation ; and so rigid is the line 
 between Medicine and Surgery, that a Tabib of good stand- 
 ing would refuse to bind up a wound. This line, however, 
 the surgeon-barber by no means scruples to transgress. 
 Practically, almost the whole science of Medicine falls 
 within his jurisdiction, and the Muhammadan physicians 
 proper are now a small and decaying class. In the great 
 towns of Upper India they may still be found, but in the 
 Bengal Districts they are never met with. The practice 
 of Medicine has now fallen into the hands of the illite- 
 rate Musalmdn barbers and of the Hindu doctors . 2 
 
 Indeed, the traditional Muhammadan Physician, even 
 where he still survives in Northern India, is a scholar and 
 recluse rather than an active practitioner. He derives 
 his art from Persian and Arabic manuscripts, and con- 
 founds our English science of Medicine with the despised 
 occupation of the surgeon-barber. It thus happens that 
 
 1 Law-officer. 
 
 2 The Hindu doctors are also of two sorts : the Kabiraj , who practises 011 
 the native system of medicine, and is often a mere quack ; and the trained 
 medical man of our English Colleges. 
 
i 7 4 THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 
 
 in Bengal, where the State affords admirable facilities 
 for the study of Medicine, the son of a good Musalm&n 
 family scarcely ever enters the Profession. Crowds of 
 ill-bred Muhammadan boys from the lower and even the 
 menial walks of life, jostle for just that amount of gratui- 
 tous instruction which will qualify them for a regimental 
 apothecaryship. They are, in short, the barber-surgeons 
 of a former time, despised by the upper classes of the 
 Musalman community, absolutely unrecognised by the few 
 surviving Muhammadan physicians, thankless for the 
 benefits which they receive, and insolent to their instruc- 
 tors except under the weight of an almost military dis- 
 cipline. It has been my good fortune to be intimately 
 acquainted with many Hindu doctors whose bearing and 
 whose learning entitle them to the respect due to their 
 noble calling. But I have never met a single Musalman 
 doctor of this class. Such men may exist in Northern 
 India, but in Bert gal the Muhammadans do not seem 
 to aspire to any of the recognised grades of the Medical 
 Profession. In 1869 the statistics stood thus: — Among 
 the Graduates of Medicine in the Calcutta University 
 there were four doctors ; three Hindus, one English- 
 man, and no Muhammadan. Among eleven Bachelors 
 of Medicine, ten were Hindus and one an Englishman. 
 The hundred and four Licentiates of Medicine consisted 
 of five Englishmen, ninety-eight Hindus, and one solitary 
 Muhammadan. Recently the Government conferred two 
 titles of Bahadur upon members of the native medical 
 profession immediately connected with the Calcutta Uni- 
 versity. Political considerations rendered it expedient 
 that one of the titles should be given to a Hindu, the 
 other to a Musalman ; and it is well known how highly the 
 Muhammadans value such a distinction. Yet I hear that, 
 
THE MUHAMMADAN LAMENT. 
 
 U5 
 
 notwithstanding the excellent personal qualities of the 
 Musalmdn gentleman selected, the title has failed to give 
 him that social status among the higher classes of his 
 countrymen which it generally confers. The truth is, 
 that Muhammadans do not consider Medicine as taught 
 in our schools the profession of a gentleman ; and social 
 prejudice closes this vocation to sons of good Muhamma- 
 dan families, as completely as the other professions, and 
 the Government Services are shut to them by the over- 
 powering rush of highly-educated Hindus. 
 
 I have seldom read anything more piteous than the 
 private letters and newspaper articles of Bengal Musal- 
 mdns. The Calcutta Persian paper 1 some time ago wrote 
 thus : — ‘ All sorts of employment, great and small, are 
 being gradually snatched away from the Muhammadans, 
 and bestowed on men of other races, particularly the 
 Hindus. The Government is bound to look upon all 
 classes of its subjects with an equal eye, yet the time has 
 now come when it publicly singles out the Muhammadans 
 in its Gazettes for exclusion from official posts. Recently, 
 when several vacancies occurred in the office of the Sun- 
 darbans Commissioner, that official, in advertising them 
 in the Government Gazette, stated that the appointments 
 would be given to none but Hindus . 2 In short, the 
 Muhammadans have now sunk so low, that, even when 
 qualified for Government employ, they are studiously 
 kept out of it by Government notifications. Nobody 
 takes any notice of their helpless condition, and the 
 higher authorities do not deign even to acknowledge 
 their existence.’ 
 
 1 Durbin , of 14th July 1869. 
 
 2 I have not at present the means of officially tracing and verifying this 
 statement of the Persian journalist, but it attracted some notice at the time, 
 and was not, so far as I heard, contradicted. 
 
1 7 6 THE MUHAMMADAN LAMENT. 
 
 The following sentences are from a petition lately 
 presented by the Orissa Muhammadans to the Commis- 
 sioner . 1 Their stilted phraseology may perhaps raise a 
 smile ; but the permanent impression produced by the 
 spectacle of the ancient conquerors of the Province beg- 
 ging in broken English for bare bread, is, I think, one of 
 sorrowful silence : — ‘ As loyal subjects of Her Most Gra- 
 cious Majesty the Queen, we have, we believe, an equal 
 claim to all appointments in the administration of the 
 country. Truly speaking, the Orissa Muhammadans have 
 been levelled down and down, with no hopes of rising 
 again. Born of noble parentage, poor by profession, and 
 destitute of patrons, we find ourselves in the position of 
 a fish out of water. Such is the wretched state of the 
 Muhammadans, which we bring unto your Honour’s notice, 
 believing your Honour to be the sole representative of 
 Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen for the Orissa 
 Division, and hoping that justice will be administered to 
 all classes, without distinction of colour or creed. The 
 penniless and parsimonious condition which we are re- 
 duced to, consequent on the failure of our former Govern- 
 ment service, has thrown us into such an everlasting 
 despondency, that we speak from the very core of our 
 hearts, that we would travel into the remotest corners 
 of the earth, ascend the snowy peaks of the Himalaya, 
 wander the forlorn regions of Siberia, could we be con- 
 vinced that by so travelling we would be blessed with a 
 Government appointment of ten shillings a week.’ 
 
 How comes it that the Muhammadan population is 
 thus shut out alike from official employ and from the 
 recognised Professions ? The Musalmans of Bengal do 
 not want intelligence, and the spur of poverty constantly 
 1 Mr. E. W. Molony, C.S., to whom I am indebted for a copy. 
 
WHO IS TO BLAME ? 
 
 i77 
 
 goads them to do something to better their condition. 
 The Government has covered Bengal with schools, and 
 many of its Districts are peopled with Muhammadans ; 
 yet the Government schools fail to develop a class of 
 Musalmans who can compete successfully at the Univer- 
 sity, or find an entrance into any of the professions. The 
 same schools send forth every year a vast body of well- 
 read, ambitious, and intellectual Hindu youths, who dis- 
 tinguish themselves as young men at the University, 
 and in after-life monopolize every avenue to wealth or 
 distinction. 
 
 The truth is, that our system of public instruction, 
 which has awakened the Hindus from the sleep of cen- 
 turies, and quickened their inert masses with some of 
 the noble impulses of a nation, is opposed to the tradi- 
 tions, unsuited to the requirements, and hateful to the 
 religion, of the Musalmdns. Under Muhammadan Rule 
 the Hindus accepted their fate exactly as they have done 
 under our own. At present, preferment depends upon a 
 knowledge of English, and they learn English. Formerly, 
 preferment depended upon a knowledge of Persian, and 
 they learned Persian. As far back as 1500 a.d. they had 
 begun to compose works in that language. The verses of 
 one of these early Hindu authors survive ; and although 
 an Infidel, he obtained a public position as a teacher of 
 the Muhammadan youth, and a lecturer on their sciences. 
 Under Akbar, the Hindus met the enlightened monarch 
 half-way, and produced an eminent Persian poet. But it 
 was not till a knowledge of Persian had become profitable 
 to the Hindus that it became general among them. At 
 the end of the sixteenth century the Chancellor of the 
 Empire, himself a Hindu, commanded that the public 
 
 accounts should thenceforward be written in Persian, and 
 
 M 
 
178 HINDUS VERSUS MUSALMANS. 
 
 the Hindu subordinate Revenue Service forthwith learned 
 Persian to a man. When, therefore, we introduced Eng- 
 lish into the public offices, the facile Hindu immediately 
 mastered the language necessary to his success in life. 
 The former language of public business under the Muham- 
 madans, and the new one under ourselves, were alike 
 foreign tongues to him. He w r as equally indifferent to 
 both, except as a means of preferment ; indeed, as our 
 Government schools gave him this important talisman 
 of success at less than half the cost price to the State, 
 he greatly preferred our system to the one which had 
 preceded it. 
 
 With the Musalmans the case was altogether dif- 
 ferent. Before the country passed to us, they were not 
 only the political but the intellectual power in India. 
 
 ‘ They possessed a s} T stem of education which,’ to use the 
 words of the Indian statesman who knows them best, 
 
 £ however inferior to that which we have established, was 
 yet by no means to be despised ; was capable of affording 
 a high degree of intellectual training and polish ; was 
 founded on principles not wholly unsound, though pre- 
 sented in an antiquated form ; and which was infinitely 
 superior to any other system of education then existing 
 in India ; — a system which secured to them an intellec- 
 tual as well as a material supremacy, and through the 
 medium of -which alone the Hindus could hope to fit 
 themselves for the smallest share of authority in their 
 native country .’ 1 During the first seventy-five years of 
 Cur Rule we continued to make use of this system as a 
 means for producing officers to carry out our administra- 
 tion. But meanwhile we had introduced a scheme of 
 Public Instruction of our own; and as soon as it trained 
 1 Mr. E. C. Bayley, C.S.I. 
 
OUR NEW S YSTEM OF ED UCA TION. 1 7 9 
 
 up a generation of men on the new plan, we flung aside 
 the old Muhammadan system, and the Musalman youth 
 found every avenue of public life closed in their faces. 
 
 Had the Musalmans been wise, they would have 
 perceived the change, and accepted their fate. But an 
 ancient conquering race cannot easily divest itself of the 
 traditions of its nobler days. The Bengal Muhammadans 
 refused a system which gave them no advantages over the 
 people whom they had so long ruled, a people whom they 
 hated as idolaters and despised as a servile race. Religion 
 came to the support of the popular feeling against the 
 innovation, and for long it remained doubtful whether a 
 Musalman boy could attend our State Schools without 
 perdition to his soul. Had we introduced our system by 
 means of English masters, or boldly changed the language 
 of public business to our own tongue, their religious diffi- 
 culty would in one important respect have been less. For 
 the Muhammadans admit that the Christian Faith, how- 
 ever short of the full truth as finally revealed by their 
 Prophet, is nevertheless one of the inspired religions 
 which have been vouchsafed to mankind. But Hinduism 
 is to them the mystery of abominations, a system of devil- 
 worship and idolatry unbroken by a single gleam of the 
 knowledge of the One God . 1 The language of our Govern- 
 ment Schools in Lower Bengal is Hindu, and the masters 
 are Hindus. The higher sort of Musalmans spurned 
 the instructions of idolaters through the medium of the 
 language of idolatry. 
 
 By degrees this detestation yielded to the altered 
 necessities of the age. Religion, which had at the begin- 
 
 1 I need hardly say that I totally disagree from this view, which is pos- 
 sibly still the view of some uninstructed Christians. The Muhammadans 
 simply paid the price of their bigoted ignorance touching the faith of the 
 people over whom they had so long ruled. 
 
i8o 
 
 UNSUITED TO THE MUSALMANS. 
 
 ning sliecl its sanction upon the popular dislike to our 
 Schools, began to waver. Decisions by the most learned 
 Law Doctor of the age, the Sun of India, who has already 
 appeared more than once in this book, were wrested into 
 an approval of an English education. This celebrated 
 Professor had already decided as to employment under 
 the English. Some official occupations, he had said, are 
 desirable, others indifferent, and others sinful. Thus, if 
 the English engage Musalimins for praiseworthy posts, 
 such as Law Officers according to the Muhammadan 
 Code, overseers on roads or resting- houses for poor 
 travellers, as protectors of property or suppressors of 
 thieves, it is well. For thus 1 the Prophet Joseph was 
 employed as Treasurer and Inspector-General of Police 
 to the Infidel King of Egypt, and likewise Her Highness 
 Musi served Pharaoh for the purpose of suckling Moses.’ 
 But if the service tends to make a person irreligious, 
 then the Musalman who accepts it commits sin. 
 
 In the same way, when his disciples asked him whether 
 it was lawful to learn logic or English, he replied : — 
 1 Logic is not necessary for salvation, but it is a help like 
 grammar in learning the necessary knowledge. If any 
 man learns it in order to cast doubts on religion, he is a 
 sinner. But if he learns it for learning’s sake, he is guilt- 
 less. Learning English for the purpose of reading books, 
 writing letters, and knowing the secret meanings of words, 
 is permitted ; because Zeid Ibn Sabit learned the lan- 
 guage and dictionaries of the Jews and Christians by the 
 Prophet’s order, that he might be able to answer the 
 letters which the Jews and Christians sent to the Prophet. 
 But if any man learns English for pleasure, or in order to 
 unite himself with the English, he sins and transgresses 
 the Law : even as in the case of a weapon of iron, if the 
 
OUR SYSTEM ALMOST PROHIBITIVE . 
 
 1 8.1 
 
 weapon is made for driving away thieves or for arresting 
 them, then the making of it is a pious act ; but if it is 
 made to help or defend the thieves, then the making of 
 it is sinful.’ 
 
 The more zealous Muhammadans, however, have 
 never quite accepted the lawfulness of an education in our 
 State Schools. While the worldly-minded among them 
 made advances towards our system, the fanatical section 
 shrunk still further back from it. During the last forty 
 years they have separated themselves from the Hindus 
 by differences of dress, of salutations, and other exterior 
 distinctions, such as they never deemed necessary in the 
 days of their supremacy. Even as late as 1860-62 there 
 was only one Musalman to ten Hindus in our schools; and 
 although the proportion has increased since then, the 
 increase is due to the additional Aided Institutions, and 
 not to the District Government Schools. The attendance 
 at the English Schools has not increased; and the officer 
 in charge of the Wahabi prosecutions, on whose authority 
 I make these statements, and who is intimately acquainted 
 with Eastern Bengal, declares that the number of Mu- 
 hammadan students bears no fair ratio to the Muham- 
 madan population. 
 
 The truth is, that our system of Public Instruction 
 ignores the three most powerful instincts of the Musal- 
 indn heart. In the first place, it conducts education in 
 the vernacular of Bengal, a language which the educated 
 Muhammadans despise, and by means of Hindu teachers, 
 whom the whole Muhammadan community hates. The 
 Bcngdli schoolmaster talks his own dialect and a vile 
 Urdu, the latter of which is to him an acquired language 
 almost as much as it is to ourselves. Moreover, his gentle 
 and timid character unfits him to maintain order among 
 
182 
 
 OUR SYSTEM ALMOST PROHIBITIVE. 
 
 Musalman boys. ‘ Nothing on earth,’ said a Muhamma- 
 dan husbandman recently to an English official, 4 would 
 induce me to send my boy to a Bengali teacher.’ In the 
 second place, our rural schools seldom enable a Muham- 
 madan to learn the tongues necessary for his holding a 
 respectable position in life, and for the performance of his 
 religious duties. Every Muhammadan gentleman must 
 have some knowledge of Persian, and Persian is a language 
 unknown even in our higher class District schools. Every 
 Musalman, from the peasant to the prince, ought to say his 
 prayers in one of the sacred languages, Persian 1 or Arabic, 
 and this our schools have never recognised. It was lately 
 asserted on high authority, that the prayers of the Musal- 
 mans find no acceptance with God unless they are offered 
 in the prescribed tongues. In the third place, our system 
 of Public Instruction makes no provision for the religious 
 education of the Muhammadan youth. It overlooks the 
 fact that among the Hindus a large and powerful caste has 
 come down from time immemorial for supplying this part 
 of a boy’s training, while among the Muhammadans no 
 separate body of clergy exists. Every head of a Musalman 
 household is supposed to know the duties of his religion, 
 and to be his own family priest. Public ministrations are 
 indeed conducted at the mosques ; but it is the glory of 
 Islam that its temples are not made with hands, and that its 
 ceremonies can be performed anywhere upon God’s earth 
 or under His heavens. A s}^stem of purely secular educa- 
 tion is adapted to very few nations. In the opinion of 
 many deeply thinking men, it has signally failed in Ire- 
 land, and it is certainly altogether unsuited to the illiterate 
 and fanatical peasantry of Muhammadan Bengal. 
 
 1 Persian has become a quasi-sacred language with the Bengali Musalmans, as it 
 was the vehicle through which the Law aud the Scriptures of Islam reached them. 
 
THE MUSALMANS REJECT IT. 
 
 183 
 
 1 Is it therefore,’ to repeat the words of the Indian 
 Statesman who has studied the subject most deeply, £ any 
 wonder that the Musalmans have held aloof from a system 
 which made no concession to their prejudices ; made no 
 provision for what they esteemed their necessities ; which 
 was in its nature unavoidably antagonistic to their in- 
 terests, and at variance with all their social traditions?’ 
 
 Yet many English Officers have gone through their 
 service with a chronic indignation against the Muham- 
 madans for refusing to accept the education which we 
 have tried to bring to every man’s door. The facility with 
 which the rest of the population acquiesced in it made 
 this refusal more odious by contrast. The pliant Hindu 
 knew no scruples, and we could not understand why the 
 Muhammadan should be troubled with them. But the 
 truth is, that we overlooked a distinction as old as the 
 religious instinct itself, — the distinction which in all ages 
 and among all nations has separated polytheism from the 
 worship of One God. Polytheism, by multiplying the 
 objects of its followers’ adoration, divides its claims on 
 their belief. What Gibbon finely said of the Greeks, 
 applies at this moment with more than its original force 
 to the Hindus : £ Instead of an indivisible and regular 
 system which occupies the whole extent of the believing 
 mind, the mythology of the Greeks was composed of a 
 thousand loose and flexible parts, and the servant of the 
 gods was at liberty to define the degree and measure of 
 his religious faith .’ 1 The Muhammadans have no such 
 licence. Their creed demands an absolute, a living, and 
 even an intolerant belief; nor will any system of Public 
 Instruction, which leaves the religious principle out of 
 sight, ever satisfy the devout follower of Islam. 
 
 1 Roman Empire, vol. ii. p. 360, quarto ed. of 1786. 
 
1 84 RUIN OF THEIR OWN SYSTEM. 
 
 How far it may be possible to do justice to the 
 Musalman population in this respect, without sacrificing 
 our position as a Christian Government, I shall afterwards 
 inquire. Meanwhile the Muhammadans have just ground 
 for complaining that the funds which we levy impartially 
 from all classes for State Education, are in Bengal ex- 
 pended on a s} 7 stem exclusively adapted to the Hindus. 
 
 But unfortunately this is not their most serious 
 charge against us. While we have created a system of 
 Public Instruction unsuited to their wants, we have also 
 denuded their own system of the funds by which it was 
 formerly supported. Every great Musalman House in 
 Bengal maintained a scholastic establishment in which its 
 sons and its poorer neighbours received an education free 
 of expense. As the Muhammadan families of the Pro- 
 vince declined, such private institutions dwindled in num- 
 bers and in efficiency. It was not, however, till the 
 second half century of our Buie that we arrayed against 
 them the resistless force of British Law. From time 
 immemorial the Native Princes of India had been accus- 
 tomed to set apart grants of land for the education of the 
 youth and for the sendee of the gods. The ruling power 
 for the time being always possessed unquestioned and 
 unlimited powers in this respect. Under the careless 
 sway of the Mughuls, and during the anarchy amid which 
 their Empire closed, the power had been to some extent 
 transferred to, and to a still greater extent usurped by, 
 the Provincial Governors and their subordinates. The 
 distant Dehli Court troubled itself little about what 
 was going on in Lower Bengal, so long as the total 
 tribute of the Province was discharged. The indolent and 
 luxurious Governor at Dacca or Murshidabad was equally 
 indifferent to the details of the District Administration. 
 
RELIGIOUS RENT-FREE GRANTS. 
 
 i85 
 
 Every great Farmer of the Revenue could do pretty much 
 as he liked with the lands under his care, so long as he 
 paid up the stipulated Land-Tax. According to the form 
 of his religion, he gave rent-free tenures to the temples or 
 to the mosques, and a long life of cruelty and extortion 
 might always be condoned by liberal death-bed devises in 
 pios usus. 
 
 When we took over charge of Bengal, the ablest 
 Revenue Officer of the time 1 estimated that one-fourth of 
 the whole Province had been transferred from the State. 
 In 1772 Warren Hastings discerned the gigantic fraud, 
 but the feeling against resuming such tenures was then 
 too strong to allow of any active steps being taken. In 
 1793 Lord Cornwallis again asserted in the strongest and 
 broadest manner the inalienable right of Government to 
 all rent-free grants which had not obtained the sanction 
 of the Ruling Power. But even the powerful Govern- 
 ment of that day did not venture to carry out this 
 principle. The subject rested for another quarter of a 
 century, until 1819, when the Government again asserted 
 its rights, but again shrank from enforcing them. It was 
 not until 1828 that the Legislature and the Executive 
 combined to make one great effort. Special Courts were 
 created, and during the next eighteen years the whole 
 Province was overrun with informers, false witnesses, and 
 stern pale-faced Resumption Officers. 
 
 At an outlay of £800,000 upon Resumption pro- 
 ceedings, an additional revenue of £300,000 a year was 
 permanently gained by the State, representing a capital 
 at five per cent, of six millions sterling. 2 A large part of 
 
 1 Mr. James Grant. 
 
 2 Vide Friend of India of 30th April 184G, whose calculations have been 
 accepted by subsequent Revenue Authorities ; e.d. Mr. J. II. Young, C. S., in 
 the Revenue Handbook, p. G9. Calcutta, 1861. 
 
i86 
 
 WE RESUME THEM, \ 1S28-1846. 
 
 this sum was derived from lands held rent free by Musal- 
 rnans or by Muhammadan foundations. The panic and 
 hatred which ensued have stamped themselves for ever 
 on the rural records. Hundreds of ancient families were 
 ruined, and the educational system of the Musalmans, 
 which was almost entirely maintained by rent-free grants, 
 received its death-blow. The scholastic classes of the 
 Muhammadans emerged from the eighteen years 1 of 
 harrying, absolutely ruined. Any impartial student will 
 arrive at the conviction, that wdiile the Resumption Laws 
 only enforced rights which we had again and again most 
 emphatically reserved, yet that the Resumption Proceed- 
 ings were harsh in the extreme, and opposed to the 
 general sense of the Indian people. Prescription cannot 
 create rights in the face of express enactments, but 
 seventy-five years of unbroken possession give rise to 
 strong claims on the tenderness of a Government. Our 
 Resumption Officers knew no pity. They calmly enforced 
 the law. The panic of those days is still remembered, and 
 it has left to us a bitter legacy of hatred. Since then the 
 profession of a Man of Learning, a dignified and lucra- 
 tive calling under Native Rulers, has ceased to exist in 
 Bengal. 
 
 The Muhammadan foundations suffered most ; for 
 with regard to their title-deeds, as with regard to all 
 other matters, the former conquerors of India had dis- 
 played a haughty indifference unknown to the provident 
 and astute Hindu. We demanded an amount of proof 
 in support of rent-free tenures, which, in the then uncer- 
 tain state of real-property law, they could not have pro- 
 
 1 The Resumption proceedings were fiercest at the beginning, and after 
 languishing for some years, were officially terminated by the Government Order 
 of March 4, 1846. 
 
MISAPPROPRIATION OF ENDOWMENTS. 187 
 
 duced in support of their acknowledged private estates. 
 During seventy- five years we had submitted under protest 
 to a gigantic system of fraud, and the accumulated 
 penalty fell upon a single generation. Meanwhile the 
 climate and the white-ants had been making havoc of 
 the grants and title-deeds which might have supported 
 their claims. There can be little doubt that our Re- 
 sumptions fell short of what had been stolen from us ; 
 but there can be no doubt whatever, that from those 
 Resumptions the decay of the Muhammadan system 
 of education dates. The officer now in charge of the 
 Wahdbi prosecutions cites them as the second cause of 
 the decline of the Musalman community in Bengal. 
 
 The justice of these proceedings may, however, be 
 defended ; the absolute misappropriation of scholastic 
 funds, with which the Musalmdns charge us, cannot. 
 For it is no use concealing the fact that the Muham- 
 madans believe that, if we had only honestly applied the 
 property entrusted to us for that purpose, they would at 
 this moment possess one of the noblest and most efficient 
 educational establishments in Bengal. In 1806 a wealthy 
 Muhammadan gentleman of Ilugli District died, leaving 
 a vast estate in pios usus. Presently his two trustees 
 began to quarrel. In 1810 the dispute deepened into a 
 charge of malversation, and the English Collector of the 
 District attached the property, pending the decision of 
 the Courts. Litigation continued till 1816, when the 
 Government dismissed both the trustees, and assumed the 
 management of the estate, appointing itself in the place 
 of one trustee, and nominating a second one. Next year 
 it let out the estate in perpetuity, taking a suitable pay- 
 ment from each of the permanent lease-holders. These 
 payments, with the arrears which had accumulated dur- 
 
i88 
 
 THE HUGH COLLEGE CASE. 
 
 ing the litigation, now amount to £105,700/ besides over 
 £12,000 which has since been saved from the annual 
 proceeds of the estate. 
 
 The Trust had, as I have said, been left for pious uses. 
 These uses had been defined by the will, such as the 
 maintenance of certain religious rites and ceremonies, the 
 repair of the Tmdmbdrah or great mosque at Hugli, a 
 burial ground, certain pensions, and various religious 
 establishments. An educational foundation came strictly 
 within the purposes of the Trust, but an educational 
 establishment on the Muhammadan plan, such as the 
 founder would have himself approved. A College for 
 poor scholars has always been considered ‘ a pious use ’ 
 in Musalman countries. But any attempt to divert the 
 funds to a non-Muhammadan College would have been 
 deemed an act of impiety by the testator, and could 
 only be regarded as a gross malversation on the part 
 of the trustees. Indeed, so inseparable is the religious 
 element from a Muhammadan endowment, that the 
 Government had to carefully investigate the legality of 
 applying a Trust, made by a gentleman of the Shiah sect, 
 to the education of the Sunni Musalm&ns. 
 
 We may imagine, then, the burst of indignation with 
 which the Muhammadans learned that the English 
 Government was about to misappropriate the funds to 
 the erection of an English College. This, however, it 
 did. It devoted an estate left expressly for the pious 
 uses of Islam, to founding an institution subversive in 
 its very nature of the principles of Islam, and from which 
 the Muhammadans were practically excluded. At this 
 moment the head of the College is an English gentleman 
 ignorant of a single word of Persian or Arabic, who draws 
 
 1 The College building, however, was paid for out of this source. 
 
THE HUGLI COLLEGE CASE. 189 
 
 £1500 a year from a Muhammadan religious endowment 
 for teaching things hateful to every Musalman. It is 
 not, of course, his fault, but the fault of the Government 
 which placed him there, and which for thirty-five years 
 has been deliberately misappropriating this great educa- 
 tional fund. In vain it attempted to cloak so gross a 
 breach of trust by attaching a small Muhammadan school 
 to the English College. Besides the misappropriation of 
 the accumulated fund in building the College, it annually 
 diverted £5000 to its maintenance. That is to say, out 
 of an income of £5260, it devoted only £350 to the 
 little Muhammadan school which alone remained to bear 
 witness to the original character of the Trust. 
 
 It is painful to dwell on this charge of misappropria- 
 tion, because it is impossible to rebut it. The Muham- 
 madans declare that the English took advantage of 
 irregularities on the part of the first Musalman trustees, 
 to place an Infidel Government in charge of their largest 
 religious endowments ; and that they have since aggra- 
 vated this initial wrong by substituting for the ‘pious 
 objects’ of the Musalman testator, an Institution which 
 is of no service to the Muhammadans whatever. Some 
 years ago it is stated that, out of three hundred boys in 
 the English College, not one per cent, were Musalmans ; 
 and although this disgraceful disproportion has since been 
 lessened, the sense of injustice still remains among the 
 Muhammadan community. ‘ I believe it is difficult,’ 
 writes a Civilian who has studied the matter deeply, ‘ to 
 over-estimate the odium, not to say the contempt, which 
 the British Government has incurred by its action in this 
 case. This language may perhaps be deemed strong, but 
 I can testify to the fact that during twenty-eight years’ 
 residence in India I have repeatedly broached the sub- 
 
190 
 
 THE MUSALMAN FESTIVAL CHARGE. 
 
 ject (I visited Hugli within a few weeks after my first 
 arrival), and I can affirm that I never heard from 
 native or European any other account. Rightly or not, 
 the Muhammadans do think that Government has be- 
 haved unjustly, and even meanly, towards them in this 
 matter, and it is a standing sore and grievance with them.’ 
 Even this, however, does not complete the wrongs 
 with which the Musalmans charge their English Rulers. 
 They arraign us not only upon depriving them of any 
 chance of success in this life, but also upon attempts to 
 imperil their salvation in the next. All religions of the 
 noble type have set apart certain days for the perform- 
 ance of their spiritual duties. We can picture the sorrow 
 and indignation with which the English would regard 
 the arbitrary fiat of a foreign conqueror, declaring that 
 Sundays should no longer be days of rest. The Muham- 
 madans venerate with emotions of equal tenderness their 
 own solemn festivals. In most parts of India we have 
 respected this feeling. But in Lower Bengal the Muham- 
 madans have of late so completely sunk out of sight, 
 that their religious requirements were gradually over- 
 looked, then neglected, and finally denied. Last year 
 the Muhammadan Pleaders of the High Court presented 
 two memorials on this subject. They pointed out, that 
 while the number of closed days allowed to the Christians 
 were sixty-two in number, and those to the Hindus fifty- 
 two, only eleven were granted to the Muhammadans. 
 Formerly the sanctioned Musalman holidays amounted 
 to twenty-one ; and all that the petitioners ventured 
 to beg was, that they should not be further decreased 
 below the minimum of eleven which they had already 
 reached. These memorials were called forth by an order 
 that the native holidays observed by the High Court 
 
THEIR HOLIDAYS REFUSED. 191 
 
 should hereafter be the same as those allowed in other 
 Government Offices. Now, ‘ in other Government Offices ’ 
 no Muhammadan holidays are sanctioned at all. The 
 head of each establishment may allow any Muhammadans 
 whom he may have under him to absent themselves 
 during their six great fasts or festivals, making a total 
 of twelve days per annum; but the office remains open, 
 and the general work goes on as usual. 
 
 The Muhammadan Pleaders pointed out that a per- 
 missive system of this sort would by no means meet the 
 requirements of a public Court of Justice. Such tribunals 
 have to consider not only their officers and practitioners, 
 but also the public for whose convenience they exist. 
 They urged that, although the number of Muhammadan 
 Pleaders has greatly diminished, yet that the number of 
 Muhammadan suitors who come to look after their cases 
 has, in consequence of railway communication, more than 
 proportionately increased. That even if the Muhammadan 
 Pleaders might be excused from attendance on a Muham- 
 madan holiday, yet that they could not divert their minds 
 from suits which might still be carried on if a Hindu or 
 an English Pleader happened to be also engaged in them. 
 In short, that the order amounted to a total abolition 
 of their religious festivals, — an abolition opposed to the 
 practice of the seventy-two years during which the Court 
 had sat, and prohibitive of the duties enjoined by their 
 faith. ‘ If holidays are to be allowed to Hindus and 
 Christians according to their religion, your Memorialists 
 submit that the Muhammadans should not be deprived of 
 the holidays set apart for the performance of their re- 
 ligious duties and ceremonies .’ 1 The hardship is aggra- 
 
 1 Memorial of the Muhammadan Pleaders of the High Court to the 
 Officiating Chief -Justice and his companion Justices, para. 3 . 
 
192 
 
 ‘ ABOLITION-OF-KAZr CHARGE. 
 
 vated by the fact that, with the exception of two festivals 
 (the 'Icl-ul-jitr occupying three days, and the ’ Id-uz-zuhn 
 occupying one), all the Musalman holidays are seasons of 
 humiliation and mourning, during which every religious 
 man should shut out the affairs of the world and take 
 account with his soul. 
 
 To so low an estate has the race which once 
 monopolized the whole legal appointments throughout 
 India fallen in Bengal. It is gratifying to know that 
 at least this piece of injustice was not allowed to take 
 effect. The Supreme Government interfered and authori- 
 tatively set apart a certain limited number of Muham- 
 madan holidays ; not, indeed, so many as the Musalmans 
 desired, but as many as the exigencies of public business 
 would permit, and sufficient for the observance of the 
 great festivals of their faith. 
 
 One charge yet remains. The Muhammadans com- 
 plain that not only has our system extruded them from 
 the legal profession, but that an Act of the Legislature 
 has deprived them of the one essential functionary for 
 the fulfilment of their domestic and religious law. 
 Under a Muhammadan Government, the Ivazi unites 
 many of the functions of a criminal, a civil, and an 
 ecclesiastical judge. It was to him that we chiefly trusted 
 to carry on the administration of justice when we first 
 took charge of the country. Our earliest code recognised 
 his importance and confirmed his office, and a long list 
 of twenty-five Regulations touching his duties may still 
 be found in our Indian Statute Books . 1 Indeed, so in- 
 
 1 Bengal Code. — Reg. iv., 1793; Reg. xn., 1793; Reg. xxxix., 1793; 
 Reg. viii., 1795; Reg. xi., 1795; Reg. xlix., 1795; Reg. 11 ., 1798; Reg. in., 
 1803; Reg. xi., 1803; Reg. xlyi., 1803; Reg. x., 1806; Reg. viii., 1809; 
 Reg. xviit., 1817 ; Reg. xi., 1826 ; Reg. in., 1827 ; Reg. iii., 1829. Madras 
 Code. — Reg. xi., 1802; Reg. 111 ., 1808; Reg. vie, 1822; Reg. in., 1828. 
 
‘ AB OLITION-OF-KAZI' CHARGE. 
 
 J 93 
 
 dispensable is the Kazi to the Muhammadan domestic 
 and religious code, that the law-doctors decided that 
 India would continue a Country of Isldm so long as the 
 Kazis were maintained, and become a Country of the 
 Enemy the moment they were abolished. 
 
 Unfortunately, the intimate acquaintance with 
 Muhammadan popular feeling, which Muhammadan dis- 
 affection has now forced us to acquire, is of a very 
 recent date. In 1863, one of the Provincial Governors 
 called in question the propriety of continuing to appoint 
 Kazis. lie appears to have thought that such appoint- 
 ments involved a recognition of their sacerdotal charac- 
 ter by the Government, and to have believed that the 
 Muhammadan community might be safely allowed to 
 make the appointments themselves. Accordingly, after 
 some discussion, and a strong protest from Bombay, the 
 whole previous legislation on the subject was repealed, 
 and Government formally discontinued its appointment 
 of Kazis. 1 
 
 During the past seven years a great and constantly 
 increasing section of the Muhammadan community have 
 been deprived of the functionary necessary for the 
 celebration of marriages and other important ceremonies 
 of their domestic Code. The evil did not tell at first so 
 severely as afterwards, for the old Kazis remained. It 
 was only on the death or retirement of one of them that 
 the law took effect, by having abolished the machinery 
 for filling his place. The subject early attracted the 
 attention of the present Viceroy, but no absolutely con- 
 
 Bombay Code. — Reg. n., 1827 ; and Reg. xxvi., 1827. Act xxvn. of 1836 ; 
 Act vii. of 1843 ; and Act V. of 1845. 
 
 1 By Act xi. of 1864, subsequently repealed by the schedule attached to 
 Act Vin. of 1868, which, however, did not revive the old Regulations under 
 which the appointments had formerly been made. 
 
 N 
 
194 
 
 * A B OLITI ON- OF-KAZI' CHARGE. 
 
 elusive evidence could be obtained until in 1870 the 
 Madras High Court took up and decided the question. 
 Mr. Justice Collett’s decision 1 leaves no doubt that 
 Kazis can only be appointed by the ruling Power ; that 
 in default of such appointment the Muhammadans are 
 powerless to elect one themselves ; and that the Act ol 
 1864 has deprived their community of the most important 
 officer of their law. Ilis duties are defined as preparing 
 and attesting Deeds of Transfer, celebrating marriages, 
 and performing certain other religious rites and ceremonies. 
 Now it so happens that one of the crying evils in Lower 
 Bengal which embarrasses and defies the Magistrates is 
 marriage litigation among the Muhammadans. For some 
 reason or another, the marriage tie has of late been 
 relaxed. Charges of adultery or abduction, both of which 
 come under the Penal Code, pour into the Courts of the 
 Deltaic Districts, and in nine cases out of ten it is impos- 
 sible to prove the legality of the marriage. Such cases 
 in the two Divisions of Eastern Bengal rose from 561 in 
 1862, two years before the discontinuance of the official 
 appointment of Kazis, to 1984 in 1866, or two years after 
 that discontinuance. Since then the number has decreased 
 in the Criminal Returns, apparently not from any real 
 diminution, but because it has become customary to refer 
 such complaints to the Civil Courts. 2 
 
 I take these figures from a valuable note by the 
 officer in charge of the Wahabi prosecutions, and an 
 
 1 Original Suit, No. 453 of 18G9 ; Muhammad Abubakr v. Mir Gliulam 
 Husain and Another. 
 
 2 The excessive growth of marriage litigation was to some extent due to 
 the people learning more fully how to make use of the Indian Penal Code. But 
 the fact of our having rendered breaches of the marriage tie a criminal offence 
 made it the more important that the marriage law should be well defined. We 
 took the very worst moment that could possibly have been chosen for the 
 abolition of the Musalman marriage officers. 
 
EFFECTS OF THEIR ABOLITION. 
 
 T 95 
 
 official of still greater weight and experience thus sums 
 up the political evil that the discontinuance of officially 
 appointing K&zis has done : — 4 In connection with the 
 Wahabi movement, there is, I think, no doubt that their 
 abolition has acted in two ways. It has increased the 
 number of zealous partially instructed men of letters , 1 
 who, without other means of livelihood, and embittered 
 against the existing state of things, go about preaching 
 among the ignorant Muhammadan population, apostles of 
 disloyalty. But it also acts in a far more serious way. 
 There can be no doubt that a Muhammadan’s life can 
 hardly be conducted in conformity to the rules of his 
 religion where no proper K&zi exists. Not only do cer- 
 tain ceremonies require their sanction, but there are per- 
 petually small questions of religious and formal law 
 cropping up in the every-day life of a Muhammadan, 
 which should properly be resolved by a K&zi. If no such 
 officer exists, it gives a broad opening to a man who 
 is disloyal to Government to press on a conscientious 
 Muhammadan that the Government is not one he can 
 properly live under. On the other hand, the use and 
 recognition of a K&zi appointed by Government is virtu- 
 ally a recognition of the authority and lawfulness of that 
 Government.’ 
 
 The question is one of the most important that ever 
 came before the Indian Legislature. Under an acknow- 
 ledged military occupation, as in Algiers, it may be doubt- 
 ful how far the K&zis require recognition by the Ruling 
 Power. But all the evidence tends to show that such 
 recognition or appointment is necessary under a settled 
 Civil Government like that of British India. The point 
 
 1 The class from whom the Kazis were recruited, and who looked to that 
 office as their career in life. 
 
196 PROPOSAL TO RE-ESTABLISH THEM. 
 
 is an intricate one, but meanwhile the decision of the 
 Madras High Court remains in force, and leaves the office 
 of Kazi shorn of dignity and legal authority. Deep con- 
 sideration of the whole bearings of the case, and consulta- 
 tion with the ten Provincial Governments into which India 
 is divided, will no doubt be required before a decision can 
 be safely arrived at. But the earnest attitude which the 
 Viceroy has taken up, and the firm resolve of Govern- 
 ment to do justice to the Muhammadans, at whatever cost 
 of admitting its former mistakes, give good ground for 
 belief that this too will presently be removed from the 
 list of Musalman charges against British Rule. 
 
 The neglect and contempt with which, for half a 
 century, the Muhammadan population of Lower Bengal 
 has thus been treated, have left their marks deep in 
 recent Indian literature. The former conquerors of the 
 East are excluded from our Oriental journals and libraries 
 as well as from the more active careers in life. The old 
 Court of Directors wisely shared its favours between 
 Musalmans and Hindus, and the admirable Arabic and 
 Persian scholarship displayed in the earlier series of the 
 Bibliotheca Indica was merely the literary representative 
 of this political impartiality. But during the last fifty 
 years the Hindus have extruded the Muhammadans alike 
 from State literature and State employ, and the £600 a 
 year which the Court of Directors granted to the Biblio- 
 theca Indica has been allotted in almost as one-sided a 
 way as Bengal official patronage. Between 1847 and 
 1852, under Dr. Roer’s rule, few efforts of Semitic scholar- 
 ship appeared; and although, during the brief incum- 
 bency of Dr. Sprenger, a reaction set in, and two works 
 of the first magnitude were begun, they have been left 
 unfinished. 
 
MUHAMMADAN TEXTS NEGLECTED. 
 
 r 97 
 
 Dr. Horace Hayman Wilson’s enthusiastic Sanskrit 
 scholarship could ill brook the expenditure of an Indian 
 grant upon Arabic literature. Under his inspiration, the 
 Court of Directors issued an injunction that the Biblio- 
 theca Indica should be devoted entirely to Indian subjects, 
 upon pain of withdrawal of the £600 a year. Perhaps it 
 was well that a man with so much force of character, and 
 with such paramount claims to be heard on his own sub- 
 ject, should have been temporarily allowed to have his 
 way. Dr. H. II. Wilson built the basement of modern 
 Sanskrit learning ; the masonry which Max Muller is now 
 overlaying with his exquisite ornamentation, and upon 
 which he is rearing upper storeys of a light and graceful 
 architecture hitherto unattempted in scholarship. Mean- 
 while Goldstiicker, Aufrecht, Fitz-Edward Ilall, and Muir 
 are strengthening the foundation, throwing out buttresses, 
 and adding substantial wings, so that the beautiful struc- 
 ture shall abide for ever. 
 
 But a little band of Semitic scholars were still hold- 
 ing together, and defending their position to the last. 
 The Court of Directors had withdrawn its support from 
 any undertaking extraneous to India Proper. The Semi- 
 tic scholars did not feel strong enough to fight on this 
 ground, and accordingly abandoned the Arabic outworks ; 
 only to entrench themselves, however, behind the Persian 
 literature of the Muhammadan Empire. Sir Henry Elliot 
 went on with his labours unmoved. Mr. Thomas, Mr. 
 Hammond, Sir William Muir, and a few others, formed a 
 brilliant group of Civilians, who wrung from the Local 
 Government what the distant Court of Directors had re- 
 fused. In 1855 the Lieutenant-Governor of the North- 
 West Provinces sanctioned the collection of Persian mss. 
 at the public expense. Sixty-seven were landed at a 
 
198 their literature neglected. 
 
 single haul. The publication of Sir Henry Elliot’s papers, 
 under the admirable although somewhat leisurely editor- 
 ship of Mr. Thomas, Professor Dowson, and Mr. Beanies, 
 marks a vast stride. Meanwhile the Lucknow Muham- 
 madan Presses have been annually pouring forth their 
 varied, if not very careful or well-considered, productions. 
 Colonel Nassau Lees has devoted all his influence and 
 learning to the cause ; and in Dr. Rost, the new librarian 
 at the India Office, Orientalists have obtained one of those 
 rare scholars who combine a broad range of subjects and 
 interests with depth and absolute trustworthiness. In 
 India the reaction is equally well marked, and a scholar 
 has arisen in the person of Mr. Blochmann, wdiose in- 
 dustry, talent, and enthusiasm recall the early days of 
 Oriental learning. 
 
 I have now set forth the Muhammadan Petition and 
 Complaint against British Rule. The charges of misap- 
 propriation and specific wrongs may be safely left to Go- 
 vernment to deal with, — a Government which has during 
 the last two years shown its earnestness equally in putting 
 down disaffection and in trying to remove the causes of 
 it. But on the more general and less tangible accusation 
 of neglect I must say a few words. If we anal} T se this 
 charge, we shall find that our unsympathetic system of 
 Public Instruction lies at the root of the matter. The 
 Bengal Musalmans can never hope to succeed in life, or 
 to obtain a fair share of the State patronage, until they 
 fit themselves for it, and they will never thus fit them- 
 selves until provision is made for their education in our 
 schools. The changes required are, in my opinion, very 
 simple and inexpensive. But before entering on them, I 
 propose to relate the one great effort we have made in 
 this direction. The English in India have failed in their 
 
CALCUTTA MU SALMAN COLLEGE. 
 
 199 
 
 duty towards the Musalmans, but it is only fair to narrate 
 the difficulties and discouragements which they have met 
 with in trying to do it. 
 
 During exactly ninety years, a costly Muhammadan 
 College has been maintained in Calcutta at the State 
 expense. 1 It owes its origin, like most other of the 
 English attempts to benefit the people, to Warren Hast- 
 ings. In 1781 the Governor - General discerned the 
 change which must inevitably come over the prospects 
 of the Musalmdns, and tried to prepare them for it. As 
 the wealth of the great Muhammadan Houses decayed, 
 their power of giving their sons an education which 
 should fit them for the higher offices in the State de- 
 clined pari passu. To restore the chances in their favour, 
 Warren Hastings established a Muhammadan College in 
 the Capital, and ‘ endowed it with certain rents towards 
 its perpetual maintenance.’ Unfortunately for the Musal- 
 mans, he left its management to the Musalmdns them- 
 selves. Persian and Arabic remained the sole subjects 
 of instruction, long after Persian and Arabic had ceased 
 to be the bread-winners in official life. Abuses of a very 
 grave character crept into the College, and in 1819 it was 
 found necessary to appoint an European Secretary. In 
 1826 a further effort was made to adapt the Institution 
 to the altered necessities of the times ; an English class 
 was formed, but unhappily soon afterwards broken up. 
 Three years afterwards, another and a more permanent 
 effort was made, but with inadequate results. During 
 the next quarter of a century, the Muhammadan College 
 shared the fate of the Muhammadan community. It 
 was allowed to drop out of sight; and when the Local 
 Government made any sign on the subject, it was some 
 
 1 Known in Bengal as the Madraseh. 
 
200 HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE , 1781-1869. 
 
 expression of impatience at its continuing to exist at 
 all. 
 
 Between 1851 and 1853, however, the authorities 
 awoke to the necessity of doing something towards re- 
 forming an Institution which had become a public scandal. 
 The result of the proposals then put forward 1 amounted to 
 this. The College was divided into two Departments, the 
 lower of which, under the name of the Anglo-Persian 
 Branch, taught Urdu, Persian, and English up to a very 
 moderate standard. 2 The upper Department was devoted 
 entirely to Arabic. The defects of this plan soon became 
 apparent. When the youths passed into the purely 
 Arabic Branch, they forgot what they had learned in 
 the more miscellaneous lower Department. In 1858 the 
 effects of the system are thus described : 4 It turned out a 
 few scholars, good in their peculiar narrow way, hut not 
 in the least fitted to take their place in the competition 
 of official or general life ; and w T ho were in consequence, 
 as a class, bigoted, self-sufficient, disappointed, and soured, 
 if not disloyal.’ 3 
 
 Another effort was made to reform the College, and 
 for a year or two with some success. 4 But things soon 
 relapsed into their former state, and in 1869 the Bengal 
 Government had to issue a Commission, still sitting, to 
 
 1 By Mr. J. II. Colvin, the Civilian who then chiefly enjoyed the confi- 
 dence of the Muhammadan community, as from his accomplishments in Persian 
 and Arabic he deserved it, and who, on the death of Mr. Thomason, became 
 Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces. He died in the Agra 
 Fort during the Mutiny. 
 
 2 At present, to the entrance standard of the Calcutta University. 
 
 3 Mr. E. C. Bayley, to whose notes I owe several of the ideas contained in 
 this Chapter. 
 
 4 Under the suggestion of Colonel Nassau Lees, the Honorary Principal of 
 the College. It is only fair to Colonel Lees (who is not now in India to speak 
 for himself), to state that he again and again earnestly set forth the necessity 
 for reform, and that some of the proposals which I shall make later on were 
 urged by him many years ago. 
 
CAUSES OF ITS FAILURE. 
 
 201 
 
 inquire into the causes of its inefficiency. The truth is, 
 that the Muhammadan College fitted its students neither 
 for the University nor for active life. ‘ The whole system,’ 
 says the most distinguished Musalman Reformer of the 
 day , 1 ‘ can land them only in half-and-half results. As 
 students entirely of Arabic, they lose the benefit of the 
 little English training they were acquainted with ; for the 
 College has no means for continuing English instruction, 
 and it does not take much time to obliterate from their 
 minds whatever little English they may have learned.’ 
 
 I propose briefly to explain how so sad a result has 
 been obtained from so well-meant an effort. In the first 
 place, the supervision has been all along deficient. Even 
 during the brief period that an English Principal has 
 existed, his appointment and his authority have been 
 little more than nominal. He has had charge of other 
 and more important offices ; and to these the Principal- 
 ship of the one great Muhammadan College which we 
 have in Bengal has been tacked on as a sort of honorary 
 appointment, with a merely nominal addition to his other 
 salary. For example, the present Principal’s chief ap- 
 pointment is Secretary to the Board of Examiners ; and 
 through his hands the whole of the Military Officers at 
 the Presidency have to pass, in order to qualify them- 
 selves for appointments, with all the Civilians who read 
 for honours in the native languages. He is also officiating 
 as Assistant-Secretary and Translator to the Government 
 of India in the Home Department, besides any occasional 
 work which may be thrown upon him, such as Committees 
 and miscellaneous references from Government. In addi- 
 tion to all this, he is supposed to be Principal of the 
 Muhammadan College ; and however enthusiastically the 
 
 1 Maulavi Abd-ul-Lati'f Khan Bahadur. 
 
202 
 
 NO SUPERVISION 
 
 present incumbent may have entered on this fragment 
 oi his multifarious duties, it is hopeless to look for per- 
 manent efficiency from such a system. 
 
 The internal arrangements are still worse. An able 
 and energetic scholar presides over the lower Department, 
 but his control ends just where such supervision is most 
 needed, viz. in the higher Arabic Branch. This Depart- 
 ment, on which the whole success of the Institution de- 
 pends, is left in the hands of the native Maulavis. 
 Nominally, indeed, one of the latter gentlemen enjoys 
 precedence over the other Masters, with the title of Head 
 Maulavi. But no distinct chain of subordination exists ; 
 the under Masters were not responsible to him, and he 
 was never seen out of his own class . 1 There were no 
 monthly nor quarterly examinations ; no daily, nor even 
 weekly, inspections of the classes. It is clear that no 
 good could come out of such a system. The Principal 
 could not really superintend, because he had other work ; 
 the Head Maulavi never attempted to supervise, and we 
 know the practical results. 
 
 It is impossible to exaggerate the evil which this 
 neglect has done to the Muhammadan youth of Bengal. 
 We must remember that, since we misappropriated the 
 Hugh Endowment a generation ago, the Calcutta College 
 is the one Institution where they can hope to obtain a 
 high-class education. A body of young Musalmans, about 
 a hundred in number, are gathered together in the heart 
 of a licentious Oriental capital ; kept under bad influences 
 for seven years, with no check upon their conduct, and no 
 examples of honourable efficiency within their sphere ; 
 
 1 I do not know whether the fact of a Commission being actually sitting 
 has changed matters in this and the other respects subsequently mentioned. 
 But I guarantee the absolute accuracy of my statements as representing the 
 general conduct of the College when the Commission was appointed. 
 
THE MUSALMAN STUDENT. 
 
 203 
 
 and finally sent back to their native villages without being 
 qualified for any career in life. About eighty per cent, 
 of them come from the fanatical Eastern Districts ; 1 the 
 difficulty of getting any lucrative employment, without a 
 knowledge of English, having driven away the youth of 
 the more loyal parts of Bengal from the College. The 
 students have passed their boyhood in an atmosphere of 
 disaffection. Many of them are poor, and when they 
 come to Calcutta, lodge in the houses and live on the 
 charity of English gentlemen’s butlers . 2 These are the 
 moneyed men among the Muhammadan community, and 
 they deride their masters behind their backs with all the 
 suppressed insolence of menials belonging to a subject 
 race. The students are all above sixteen, some above 
 twenty, and some, I am told, over thirty years of age. 
 The butlers with whom they live not only acquire the 
 religious merit of supporting them, but often marry their 
 daughters, with a handsome dowry, to their guests. The 
 latter come from the petty landholding class, who care 
 nothing for English or for science, little for Persian, and 
 a great deal for the technicalities of Arabic grammar and 
 law. At home they were engaged in ploughing then- 
 little fields or plying their boats ; and they speak the 
 rude peasant dialect of the Deltaic Districts — a jpatois 
 unintelligible to the Calcutta Musalman. 
 
 This is the new-caught student. In a few years he 
 loses his barbarous jargon, gets his beard clipped, and 
 sets up as a young professor of the Musalman Law. A 
 generous Government allows twenty-eight scholarships 
 among the hundred students, so that sooner or later any 
 
 1 Chittagong, Sandwfp, and Shahbazpur send the majority. 
 
 2 Kb&nsamans, who maintain poor scholars as a religious act. Such board 
 and lodging is called a jagir, the name by which the military fiefs of the 
 Muhammadan Empire were styled. 
 
204 
 
 THE MUSALMAN STUDENT 
 
 3 ’outh of the smallest application is sure to get one. Mean- 
 while the more enterprising and less studious among them 
 set up a little trade. The advanced student has a conse- 
 quential swagger all his own. He struts about Calcutta 
 with his books under his arm, and, throwing aside the 
 character of a poor pensioner, demands the respect due 
 to a man of learning from the butler on whom he lives. 
 Thanks to our short-sighted abolition of the Kazis, the 
 domestic Code of Isldm has fallen into the hands of un- 
 licensed practitioners. The College Students read the 
 marriage formula in the lower sort of Muhammadan 
 families, settle matters of inheritance, and sell shallow De- 
 cisions according to the Hidayah and the Jami’-ur-rumuz. 
 
 There never was a set of young men who stand more 
 in need of good guidance than these poor students of the 
 Muhammadan College. What amount of guidance they 
 get, I have already set forth. Every year under our 
 instruction makes them more confident in their own 
 narrow system of learning, more vicious as to their morals, 
 less fit for any active career in life, and more disloyal to 
 our Government. They hate the sight of an Englishman. 
 When the scandal had grown so public as to render impe- 
 rative a resident English Professor in the College, 1 he had 
 to be smuggled into it by night. During more than ninety 
 years the Chapters on Holy War against the Infidel have 
 been the favourite studies of the place ; and up to 1868 
 or 1869, I forget the exact date, examination questions 
 were regularly given in this Doctrine of Rebellion. A 
 mosque of fanaticism flourishes almost within the shadow 
 of the College, 2 and the students frequent the Rebel places 
 
 1 At present Mr. Blochmann. Unhappily the Resident English Professor 
 has no jurisdiction over the Arabic or Upper Department. 
 
 2 A Faraizi mosque. 
 
THE MUSALMAN STUDENT. 
 
 205 
 
 of worship throughout all Calcutta. The present Head 
 Master is the son of one of the leading Doctors whom the 
 Mutiny of 1857 brought to the front, and who expiated 
 his crimes by transportation for life to an island in the 
 Indian Ocean. The library of the learned traitor, after 
 being confiscated by Government, is now lodged in the 
 Calcutta College. Within the last few months, the Resi- 
 dent English Professor had to turn out of the grounds a 
 wandering Arab, who came to ‘preach religion,’ or, in 
 other words, the doctrines which have cost us three 
 Frontier Wars, and spread a network of conspiracy over 
 the Empire. 
 
 After a seven years’ training of this sort, we dismiss 
 the Muhammadan youth to the fanatical Eastern Districts 
 whence they came. But unhappily an even sadder tale 
 remains to be told. I do not speak of the last two years 
 during which the Special Commission has been sitting. 
 But there is evidence on record to show that, within a 
 quite recent period, the students brought their courtesans 
 into the College. 1 About twenty-six of them have rooms ; 
 and the quarters thus granted by the Government were 
 converted into dens of profligacy. Not content with 
 harbouring what Carlyle calls the unmentionable women, 
 they sunk into those more horrible crimes against nature 
 which Christianity has extirpated from Europe, but which 
 lurk in every great city of India. Within the last five or 
 six years three cases were discovered; how many occurred 
 can never be known. 
 
 Even the few among them who, if left to themselves, 
 would try to do well, had no means for obtaining any 
 
 1 It is only just to add tlmt the non-resident English Principal, Colonel Lees, 
 was in no way responsible for these occurrences, and when the courtesan dis- 
 coveries were made, took steps for rendering their repetition impossible. 
 
206 
 
 THE MUSALMAN STUDIES. 
 
 sound or practically useful knowledge. In the first place, 
 the time daily devoted to teaching was too short. The 
 fixed hours are from ten to two, from which about twenty 
 minutes must be subtracted in order to allow masters and 
 students to smoke a hooka, known in the College slang as 
 Moses’ Rod; and about half an hour for calling the roll, — 
 a ceremony which had to be performed twice a day, as 
 many of the students finally disappeared at twelve o’clock. 
 Some of the more diligent supplement the meagre College 
 curriculum by reading 1 religion ’ in private Musalman 
 schools outside. Such external studies consist chiefly of 
 the Muhammadan Traditions {Hadis), and law-books of 
 the fanatical mediaeval stamp, — a sort of learning which 
 fills the youthful brain with windy self-importance, and 
 gives rise to bitter schisms on the most trivial points 
 within the College walls. Not long ago, as the English 
 Resident Professor was going his evening rounds, he heard 
 a tumult in the students’ rooms. 1 Your religion is all 
 wrong,’ 1 and similar phrases, resounded through the corri- 
 dors, and fierce were the denunciations on all sides. He 
 hurried to the scene of the uproar, and found that one of 
 the students had discovered in a law-book that during 
 prayer the heels should be joined, else the petition has 
 no effect in heaven or on earth. Those who had said 
 their prayers with unclosed heels denounced the dis- 
 coverer of the new mode as a pernicious heretic ; while 
 he and a little band of followers consigned all who prayed 
 in the old fashion to the eternal torments of hell. 
 
 Three hours’ instruction is as much as they could 
 possibly obtain from the College teachers in the day ; — 
 one who has practical acquaintance with it, tells me that 
 the actual time of teaching seldom exceeded two and a 
 
 1 ‘ Tuinhard nndn t’hik ne.’ 
 
THE MUSALMAN STUDIES. 
 
 207 
 
 half hours. Anything like preparation at home is un- 
 known, and indeed is opposed to Muhammadan ideas. 
 Each master reads out an Arabic sentence, and explains 
 the meanings of the first, second, and third word, and so 
 on till he comes to the end of it. The diligent student 
 writes these meanings between the lines of his text-book, 
 and by easy degrees learns the whole sentence and the in- 
 terpretation thereof by heart. To teach him how to use 
 the dictionary at home, or to reason out the meaning of a 
 passage on his own account, is an altogether foreign in- 
 vention, possibly dangerous to his religious faith, and at 
 any rate unknown in the Calcutta College. At the end of 
 seven years the students know certain books by heart, 
 text and interpretation ; but if they get a simple manu- 
 script beyond their narrow curriculum, they are in a 
 moment beyond their depth. Such a teaching, it may 
 well be supposed, produces an intolerant contempt for 
 anything which they have not learned. The very 
 nothingness of their acquirements makes them more 
 conceited. They know as an absolute truth that the 
 Arabic grammar, law, rhetoric, and logic, comprise all 
 that is worth knowing upon earth. They have learned 
 that the most extensive kingdoms in the world are, first 
 Arabia, then England, France, and Russia, and that the 
 largest town, next to Mecca, Medina, and Cairo, is 
 London. Au reste , the English are Infidels, and will 
 find themselves in a very hot place in the next world. 
 To this vast accumulation of wisdom what more could 
 be added ? When a late Principal tried to introduce pro- 
 fane science, even through the medium of their own Urdu, 
 were they not amply justified in pelting him with brick- 
 bats and rotten mangoes ? 
 
 I have dwelt on these painful details, because I believe 
 
2o8 
 
 OUR NON-INTERFERENCE FATAL. 
 
 it most important, now that the Government has awakened 
 to the necessity of really educating the Musalmans, that it 
 should avoid a system which has brought failure upon its 
 one great previous attempt. The Calcutta Muhammadan 
 College has been practically left in the hands of the 
 Muhammadans themselves, and it is under their manage- 
 ment that it has proved such a scandal and disgrace. At 
 first our tenderness, and afterwards our indifference, to 
 the waning fortunes of the Musalman community, pre- 
 vented the Government from interfering with an institution 
 which it knew to be inefficient, but which it did not see 
 very clearly how to amend. A hundred years of native 
 management has moulded the system to suit the prejudices 
 rather than the wants of the Muhammadans. Our one 
 great fault has been, that we have left the Muhammadan 
 College too much to the Muhammadans themselves. As 
 early as 1819 this was clearly perceived, but the Govern- 
 ment of that day went on hoping against hope that a 
 merely nominal control by a European Secretary would 
 in time suffice. The same unwillingness to interfere has 
 characterized and has baffled all the efforts at reform 
 during the past twenty years. When a Principal was 
 at length appointed, his office w T as an honorary and a 
 nominal one ; when a Resident Professor was finally 
 introduced, his jurisdiction stopped short at the Depart- 
 ment in which it was most needed. 
 
 A recent State Paper complained that only in 
 Northern India do the Muhammadans contribute a fair 
 share, either in numbers or money, to our Schools. The 
 answer lies on the surface. In Bengal, both the more 
 pious and the wealthier families, such as the Ndkhudas 
 of Calcutta, will have nothing to do with institutions 
 which do not teach Persian or Arabic, and in which 
 
MUSALMAN PEASANT SCHOOLS. 
 
 209 
 
 the religious faith of their children might be sapped by 
 infidel Hindu masters. The middle-class does send its 
 boys to our schools ; but in Bengal the middle-class of 
 Musalmans is so thin as to have but slight effect one 
 way or the other. The lower-class Muhammadans have 
 never been reached by our system of Public Instruction, 
 although I have known Missionary Schools such as those 
 of the Rev. James Long full of them. The fanatical, 
 seething masses of the Musalm&n peasantry in Eastern 
 Bengal remain beyond the pale of English education or 
 English influence. 
 
 Yet I believe that an efficient system of education for 
 all classes of the Musalman community might be organised 
 at a very small charge to the State. Such a system would 
 have to provide for low-class, middle-class, and high-class 
 instruction. With regard to the first, a liberal construc- 
 tion of the existing Grant -in -Aid Rules would almost 
 suffice. It is not more money that is needed, so much 
 as a consideration of the special wants of the Musal- 
 mdns. Government has wisely declared that it will not 
 assist two schools within five miles of each other, for 
 such assistance would produce an unprofitable rivalry 
 at the cost of the State. The astute Hindu, in this 
 as in all other matters, has been first in the field. 
 He has covered the country with schools admirably 
 adapted to the wants of his own community, but wholly 
 unsuited to the requirements of the Muhammadans. 
 The five miles rule, therefore, should he relaxed so 
 as to allow a State grant to Musalman schools within 
 that distance of existing Hindu ones. Where separate 
 institutions are not needed, Government might make 
 provision for the Musalmans, by appointing a Muham- 
 madan teacher to the existing Hindu school. Such 
 
 0 
 
2 IO 
 
 MUSALMAN PEASANT SCHOOLS. 
 
 Musalman teachers could be had at five shillings a 
 week. 
 
 With regard to the fanatical Eastern Districts, how- 
 ever, I think it would well repay Government to create a 
 special machinery for reaching the Musalman peasantry. 
 Such machinery was at one time found requisite for the 
 Hindus. Lord Hardinge instituted a number of schools 
 in order to extend education into Districts where there 
 was no self-supporting demand for it. Of these schools 
 thirty - eight survived in the Educational Division of 
 Bengal, that I had in my charge in 1866. They cost 
 the Government over £1100 a year, besides the fees, 
 which amounted only to £267, and were in no sense self- 
 supporting. But it is difficult to overrate the good that 
 these schools have done. Wherever the peasantry were 
 too ignorant, too poor, or too bigoted to set agoing a 
 school under the Grant-in- Aid Rules, one of the Hardinge 
 Institutions was temporarily established. At first the 
 villagers got their education for almost nothing ; but by 
 degrees, as the presence of an educated class created a 
 demand for further education, the fees were raised. In a 
 few years the self-supporting element was thus introduced, 
 a higher class of school was formed, and the cheap Har- 
 dinge School was transferred to some more backward 
 part of the country. In this way education has been 
 thrown out deeper and deeper into the jungles of South- 
 Western Bengal. 1 
 
 I think the same might now be done for the fanatical 
 Eastern Districts. The Grant-in- Aid Rules will not reach 
 a population hereditarily disaffected to our Government, 
 and averse to our system of instruction. But fifty cheap 
 
 1 In 1865-66 there were 283 schools, with an attendance of 16,043 pupils, 
 in the South-Western Division. 
 
MUSALMAN MIDDLE-CLASS SCHOOLS. 
 
 2 I I 
 
 schools, with low - paid Musalman teachers, to which 
 Government contributed the larger part of the expense, 
 would in a single generation change the popular tone of 
 Eastern Bengal. Such Institutions would have but a 
 small success at first. But they would gradually attract 
 not merely the Musalmdn peasant youth , 1 but also the 
 Musalmdn teachers, who now earn a precarious livelihood 
 on their own account ; and to whom an additional five 
 shillings a week from Government would be an inde- 
 pendent fortune. We should thus enlist on our side the 
 very class which is at present most persistently bitter 
 against us. 
 
 So much for the lower-class education of the Musal- 
 mans. With regard to their middle-class instruction a 
 still smaller change would be required. The officer in 
 charge of the Wahdbi prosecutions has already urged that 
 Muhammadan teachers (Maulavis) should be appointed to 
 each of the District Government Schools, and this would 
 suffice. Such teachers should instruct in the usual 
 branches of education through the Urdu vernacular, and 
 give a thorough knowledge of that language, besides an 
 acquaintance with Persian, and perhaps a little Arabic. 
 The prevailing tone of a District Government School might 
 be safely left to itself to produce a desire of learning 
 English among the Musalman boys who frequented it. 
 
 These charges would cost little, but a complete and 
 an efficient system of higher-class Muhammadan educa- 
 tion would cost the State not one penny. The sum set 
 apart by Warren Hastings for the Calcutta Musalmdn 
 College, and the ample endowments of the Hugli Institu- 
 
 1 The attendance on the 38 ‘ Hardinge and Model Schools ’ in the South- 
 Western Division rose from 1431 in 1861-G2, to 2034 in 1865-66, the year of 
 my Report. The cost per pupil during the same period decreased from 12s. 6d. 
 to 8s. 6d. 
 
2 I 2 
 
 A MUSALMAN COLLEGE. 
 
 tion, would, if properly applied, amply suffice. The funds 
 which we at present misappropriate to maintain an Eng- 
 lish College should henceforth he honestly devoted to the 
 purpose for which the testator left them. Whether one 
 really good College would not be better than two, and 
 whether it should be fixed in Calcutta, or at Hugh, 
 which is only twenty - four miles off by railway, are 
 matters of detail on which I need not enter here. The 
 actual instruction might for the most part be conducted 
 by Muhammadan teachers as at present ; but each College 
 should have a Resident European Principal acquainted 
 with Arabic, and capable both of supervising his subordi- 
 nates and of enforcing their respect. The emoluments of 
 the position, say from £1200 to £1500 a year, would com- 
 mand an adequate order of scholarship from the English 
 or German Universities. 
 
 Such higlier-class education would consist not of two 
 distinct branches, as in the Calcutta College, in the Upper 
 of which the student forgets whatever he has learned in 
 the Lower, but of a well-planned unbroken curriculum. 
 The present Upper or Arabic Department could be turned 
 into an Anglo- Arabic one, and form a well- amalgamated 
 extension of the Lower or Anglo -Persian branch. A 
 Musalman boy would thus pass by easy transitions 
 from the District Government School, through the two 
 College Departments, to the highest branches of learn- 
 ing. It is more than doubtful whether the Muham- 
 madan Law should be taught as a regular study, in- 
 cumbent on all. It certainly should not be made the 
 chief object of instruction. For the Muhammadan Law 
 means the Muhammadan religion — that religion, too, at 
 a time when its followers looked upon the whole earth 
 as their lawful prey, and before they had learned the 
 
REVIEW OF MY SCHEME. 
 
 213 
 
 duties of modem Musalmdn States in alliance with, or 
 in subjection to, a Christian Government. It would not 
 be wise to do away altogether with the teachers of the 
 Law, for its total abolition would imperil the popularity 
 of the College with the present generation of Musalnnins. 
 Yet it should be remembered that our original reason for 
 encouraging Muhammadan Law, to wit, the production 
 of qualified Musalman Law Officers, has ceased to exist. 
 The study no longer answers any requirement of the 
 Government, nor does it offer to its students any career 
 in life. An adequate knowledge of it could be given in 
 separate lectures, somewhat as the Hindu Law is taught 
 at the Calcutta University. For the present daily 
 drill in the Code of Islam, might be substituted Arabic 
 or Persian literature, and the study of Western science 
 through the medium of Urdu. 
 
 In this way we should develope a rising generation 
 of Muhammadans, no longer learned in their own narrow 
 learning, nor imbued solely with the bitter doctrines of 
 their medigeval Law, hut tinctured with the sober and 
 genial knowledge of the West. At the same time they 
 would have a sufficient acquaintance with their religious 
 code to command the respect of their own community, 
 while an English training would secure them an entry 
 into the lucrative walks of life. 
 
 For the lower and middle class education of the 
 Musalmans, a special Deputy Inspector of Schools belong- 
 ing to their own faith would he required. Such an officer 
 might be obtained for £200 a year. One of his first duties 
 should be to find out and report on the Musalman schools 
 and colleges 1 under native management. An excellent 
 private institution of this sort, with an attendance of 110 
 
 1 Madrasehs. 
 
214 
 
 REVIEW OF MY SCHEME. 
 
 boys, exists in Calcutta, but can get no Grant-in-Aid. 
 Another, founded by Warren Hastings, survives not far 
 off in a village to the west of Hourah, but does nothing. 
 A third lingers near Maim&ri, on the East India Rail- 
 way ; a fourth at Sasseram. Similar establishments drag 
 on an obscure existence wholly unknown to our Educa- 
 tional Inspectors. In some of them, I believe, a fair 
 degree of efficiency is maintained, and it would be well 
 to find out if anything is to be learned from the system 
 they pursue. I do not think that they would submit to 
 regular supervision by English officers, but many of them 
 would agree to the visits of a Deputy Inspector of their 
 own faith, as the easy condition of a Grant-in-Aid. W r e 
 should thus enlist the most seditious Institutions in 
 Bengal on the side, if not of loyalty, at least of peace 
 and order. For the present puerile follies which the 
 Musalm&ns read in their schools, a series of well-chosen 
 and well-edited Text -books should be issued. The 
 Colleges might be safely left to the care of their English 
 Principals ; and for these ample funds exist, if properly 
 applied, without costing an extra shilling to the State. 
 
 We should thus at length have the Muhammadan 
 youth educated upon our own plan. Without interfering 
 in any way with their religion, and in the very process of 
 enabling them to learn their religious duties, we should 
 render that religion perhaps less sincere, but certainly less 
 fanatical. The rising generation of Muhammadans would 
 tread the steps which have conducted the Hindus, not 
 long ago the most bigoted nation on earth, into their 
 present state of easy tolerance. Such a tolerance implies 
 a less earnest belief than their fathers had ; but it has 
 freed them, as it would liberate the Musalmdns, from the 
 cruelties which they inflicted, the crimes which they per- 
 
CON CL US10N. 
 
 2I 5 
 
 petrated, and the miseries which they endured, in the 
 name of a mistaken religion. I do not permit myself 
 here to touch upon the means by which, through a state 
 of indifference, the Hindus and Musalmans alike may yet 
 reach a higher level of belief. But I firmly believe that 
 that day will come, and that our system of education, 
 which has hitherto produced only negative virtues, is the 
 first stage towards it. Hitherto the English in India 
 have been but poor Iconoclasts after all. 
 
 Meanwhile it remains for Government, while sternly 
 putting down disaffection among the Bengal Muhamma- 
 dans, to deprive them of every excuse for it. It has to 
 make amends to them, not only for the decay in which our 
 conquest and changed administration have involved their 
 community, but also for the want of sympathy which 
 has rendered their ruin less bearable and more complete. 
 Its dealings with the disloyal section of the Musalmans 
 should be managed so as not only to commend themselves 
 to public justice, but also to public opinion. The un- 
 skilful conduct of a well-merited condemnation 1 left for 
 centuries a stain on the memory of the most virtuous 
 Emperor of Rome. Hitherto we have shed no blood, 
 except on the field of battle, and the result has been a 
 crop of Wahabi apostates instead of an army of Wahabi 
 martyrs. At the moment I write this page, the infamous 
 Meat-Supplier of the British Troops, 2 who was con- 
 demned to death in 1864, is giving evidence at Patna 
 against the brethren of his former faith. Had his original 
 sentence been carried out, thousands of devotees would 
 every year be making a pilgrimage to his tomb. A death 
 
 1 That of the Viceroy of Africa, the Notary Gaudentius, and the tyrant 
 Duke of Egypt, under Julian. 
 
 2 Muhammad Shafi’. 
 
21 6 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 in the cause of religion has in all ages sufficed to illumi- 
 nate a life of infamy. The fortunes of an even viler Meat- 
 Supplier to the Army than our Dehli butcher, stand out 
 in history to warn the Government against capital sen- 
 tences, which its Musalmdn subjects would regard as 
 religious executions. It should never forget how George 
 of Cappadocia, after a life of obloquy as a parasite, as a 
 defaulting bacon-contractor to the Roman Troops, and as 
 a dissolute prelate, obtained an apotheosis by an unwilling 
 death, and became Saint George of Merry England. 
 
APPENDICES. 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 DECISION OF THE MECCA LAW DOCTORS 
 (the Heads of the three Great Musalman Seels). 
 
 Question. 
 
 • What is your opinion (may your greatness continue for ever) on this 
 question ; whether the country of Hindustan, the rulers of which are 
 Christians, and who do not interfere with all the injunctions of Islam, such 
 as the ordinary daily Prayers, the Prayers of the two ’Ids, etc., but do 
 authorize departure from a few of the injunctions of Islam, such as the per- 
 mission to inherit the property of the Muhammadan ancestor to one who 
 changes his religion (being that of his ancestors), aud becomes a Christian, 
 is Dur-ul-IsMm or not ? Answer the above, for which God will reward you.’ 
 
 Answer No. I. 
 
 ‘ All praises are due to the Almighty, who is the Lord of all the Creation ! 
 
 O Almighty, increase my knowledge ! 
 
 .4s long as even some of the peculiar observances of Islam prevail in it , it is the 
 Dar-ul-lslam. 
 
 The Almighty is Omniscient, Pure and High ! 
 
 This is the Order passed by one who hopes for the secret favour of the 
 Almighty, who praises God, and prays for blessings and peace on his 
 Prophet. 
 
 (Signed) Jamal Ibn Abdullah Sheikh Omar ul-Hanafi, the 
 present Mufti of Mecca (the Honoured). May God 
 favour him and his father.’ 
 
 Answer No. II. 
 
 ‘ All praises are due to God, who is One ; and may the blessings of God be 
 showered upon our Chief, Muhammad, and upon his descendants aud com- 
 panions, and upon the followers of his Faith ! 
 
 0 God ! I require guidance from Thee in righteousness. 
 
 Yes! As long as even some of the peculiar observances of Islam prevail in it , it 
 is Dar-ul-lslam. 
 
2 1 8 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 The Almighty is Omniscient, Pure and High ! 
 
 This is ■written by one who hopes for salvation from the God of mercy. May 
 God forgive him, and his parents and preceptors, and brothers and 
 friends, and all Muhammadans. 
 
 (Signed) Ahmad Ibn Zaixi Dahlan, Mufti of the Shafi’i Sect of 
 Mecca (the Protected). 
 
 Answer No. III. 
 
 1 All praises are due to God, who is One ! 0 ! Alm ighty ! increase my know- 
 ledge ! 
 
 It is ivritten in the Commentary of DasoJd that a Country of Islam does not 
 become Ddr-ul-Harb as soon as it passes into the hands of the Infidels , but 
 only when all or most of the injunctions of Islam disappear therefrom. 
 
 God is Omniscient ! May the blessings of God be showered upon our Chief, 
 Muhammad, and on his descendants and companions. 
 
 (Signed) 'Written by Husain Ibn Ibrahim, Mufti of the Mdlikf 
 Sect of Mecca (the Illustrious).’ 
 
 APPEXDIX II. 
 
 THE DECISION OF THE LAW DOCTORS OF NORTHERN INDIA. 
 
 Translation of the Istifta or Question, put bt Sayyid Amir Husain, 
 Personal Assistant to the Commissioner of Bhagalpur. 
 
 What is your Decision, 0 men of learning and expounders of the law of 
 Islam, in the following ? — 
 
 Whether a Jihad is lawful in India, a coimtry formerly held by a Muham- 
 madan ruler, and now held under the sway of a Christian Government, where 
 the said Christian Ruler does in no way interfere with his Muhammadan 
 subjects in the Rites prescribed by their Religion, such as Praying, Fasting, 
 Pilgrimage, Zakat, Friday Prayer, and Jama’at, and gives them fullest pro- 
 tection and liberty in the above respects in the same way as a Muhammadan 
 Ruler would do, and where the Muhammadan subjects have no strength and 
 means to fight with their rulers ; on the contrary, there is every chance of the 
 war, if waged, ending with a defeat, and thereby causing an indignity to 
 Islam. 
 
 Please answer, quoting your authority. 
 
 Fatwa dated the 17th Rabf-us-sam, or Rabr n. , 1287 H., corresponding 
 with the 17th July 1870. 
 
 The Musalmans here are protected by Christians, and there is no Jihad in 
 a country where protection is afforded, as the absence of protection and liberty 
 
APPENDICES. 
 
 219 
 
 between Musalmans and Infidels is essential in a religious war, and that con- 
 dition does not exist here. Besides, it is necessary that there should be a 
 probability of victory to Musahnan and glory to the Indians. If there be no 
 such probability, the Jihad is unlawful. 
 
 Here the Maulavfs quote Arabic passages from Manhaj -ul-Ghaffar and the 
 Fatdwi-i-Alamgfri, supporting the above decision. 
 
 After declaring, in opposition to the northern Law Doctors, that India is 
 a Dar-ul-Islam, Maulavi Karamat Alf proceeded thus : 
 
 4 The second question is, 44 Whether it is lawful in this Country to make 
 Jihad or not.” This has been solved together with the first. For Jihad can by 
 no means be lawfully made in Dar-ul-Islam. This is so evident that it requires 
 no argument or authority to support it. Now, if any misguided wretch, owing 
 to his perverse fortune, were to wage war against the Ruling Powers of this 
 Country, British India ; such war would be rightly pronounced rebellion ; 
 and rebellion is strictly forbidden by the Muhammadan Law. Therefore such 
 war will likewise be unlawful ; and in case any one would wage such war, the 
 Muhammadan subjects would be bound to assist their Rulers, and, in con- 
 junction with their Rulers, to fight with such rebels. The above has been 
 clearly laid down in the Fatawi-i-Alamgirf.’ 
 
 /Maulavi Ali Muhammad, of Lucknow ; 
 Maulavi Abd-ul-Hai, of Lucknow ; 
 Maulavi Fazlullah, of Lucknow ; 
 
 Maulavi Rahmatullaii, of Lucknow ; 
 Maulavi Kutab-ud-din, of Delili ; 
 Maulavi Lutfullah, of Rampur ; 
 
 and others. 
 
 APPENDIX III. 
 
 DECISION OF THE CALCUTTA MUHAMMADAN SOCIETY.