INDIA.] THE MUNNY BEGUM. 257 office in Bahar, clothed in a robe of state and mounted on a richly caparisoned elephant, as marks of honour and respect. * Nuncomar throve as little in his hopes of ambition as in his projects of revenge. Hastings had meanwhile been effecting a complete change in the former system. It was not merely that he arrested the Minister, he abolished the office. He put an end to the scheme of double government at Moorshedabad and at Calcutta, transferring to the latter city and to the servants of the Company the entire machinery of state affairs. An empty pageant only was left at the former capital, still decked with the name and honours of Nabob. That Nabob, the heir of Meer Jaffier, was now an infant. On that plea, Hastings took occasion to reduce the yearly allowance granted by the Company from 320,000l. to half that sum. To alleviate in some degree the disappointment that was gnawing at the heart of Nuncomar, his son, Rajah Goordas, was appointed Treasurer of the young Prince's Household. The guardianship of the young Prince himself was bestowed, not on his own mother, but on another lady of his father's Haram-the Munny Begum, by title and name. This last choice afforded at a later period strong grounds for complaints and cavils against Hastings. Why, it was asked, in such a country, where the female sex is held in so slight esteem, select any woman for that charge; and if any, why overlook a parent's rightful claim? There was nothing in the life or character of the Munny Begum to entitle her to any especial trust; she had been a dancing girl, and as such only had attracted the favour of the old Nabob. But on the other hand, it is to be observed, that her appointment, when proposed by Hastings to the Members of the Council, obtained from them a full and unanimous approval. They state in their Minutes on the subject: "She is said to have acquired a great ascendant 66 over the spirit of the Nabob, being the only person of See a note by Professor Wilson, correcting some errors both of fact and date in Mr. Mill (History of India, vol. iii. p. 545., ed. 1840.) Mahon, History. VII. 17 "whom he stands in any kind of awe, a circumstance "highly necessary for fulfilling the chief part of her duty, "in directing his education and conduct which appear to "have been hitherto much neglected." There is another reason, which, in the midst of the Moorshedabad arrests, had probably still more weight with Hastings, but which he reserves for a private letter to the Secret Committee of Directors, namely, that the Munny Begum was "the de"clared enemy" of Mahomed Reza Khan.* External affairs also claimed the early care of Hastings. Shah Alum, the Emperor, in name at least, of Hindostan, had more than once endeavoured, but in vain, to prevail upon the English to assist him in expelling the Mahrattas. Finding that alone he could not attack these invaders of his patrimony with the smallest prospect of success, he took the opposite part, and threw himself into their arms. He was received at first with every token of respect and homage, and led back in triumph to his ancestral seat of Delhi. Soon, however, and of course, a quarrel ensued between them, when he found himself no more than a prisoner and a puppet in the hands of his new allies. They compelled him to sign an edict, transferring to them the districts of Allahabad and Corah, which had been bestowed upon him by Lord Clive. But here Hastings interposed. He determined not merely on resuming the districts of Allahabad and Corah, but on discontinuing all further yearly payments to Shah Alum. Breach of faith on this account became, at a later period, one of the charges brought against him. Yet, surely, there were some strong grounds both of justice and of policy in favour of the course which he pursued. We had wished to support the Emperor while he remained independent, or dependent only on ourselves; we might cease * Minutes of Council, July 11. 1772. See also in Mr. Gleig's Memoirs, the letter of Hastings to Dupré, of January 6. 1773. When Hastings writes to the young Nabob, he calls the Munny Begum "the rightful head of his "family," and adds, that "she stands in the place of his deceased father." It is plain from thence, however strange, that the Nabob's own mother was held as an inferior. INDIA.] CASE OF THE ROHILLAS. 259 to support him whenever he resigned himself to our inveterate foes, and was preparing to turn our own gifts into arms against us. The districts of Corah and Allahabad were promptly occupied by English troops. As our territory, however, stood at that time there was little or no temptation to annex them. It was computed that the expenses of maintaining them at so great a distance would exceed the utmost revenue they could bring. It was therefore the wish of Hastings to yield them for a stipulated sum to the adjacent Stade of Oude. He repaired to the city of Benares to confer in person with the Nabob Visier. There, in September, 1773, a treaty was agreed upon between them; the Nabob Visier undertaking to pay for the two districts the sum of fifty Lacs of Rupees. But - alas for the fair fame not only of Hastings, but of England! another and a weightier question was then decided at Benares. The Rohillas, a tribe of Afghan blood, had earlier in that century, and as allies of the Mogul, descended into the plains of Hindostan. They had obtained for their reward that fertile country which lies between the Ganges and the mountains on the western boundary of Oude. That country bore from them the name of Rohilcund. It had been earned by their services, and it was flourishing under their dominion. Of late there had sprung up a difference between them and their neighbours of Oude, with respect to some pecuniary stipulations which the Rohillas contracted and were backward to discharge. On that ground, Sujah Dowlah had a plea for war against them a plea certainly plausible, and perhaps just. His real aim, however, was not the settlement of their account, but rather the entire subjugation of their race. He had little hope that his rabble of the plains would stand firm against the hardier offspring of the northern mountaineers. Therefore he applied to the English Governor for the aid of English bayonets; and this request came before Hastings at a time when the Bengal treasury was weighed down with heavy debts, and when nevertheless the letters from the Court of Directors were calling on him in the most earnest terms for large remittances. The Indian prince wanted soldiers, and the English chief wanted money, and on this foundation was the bargain struck between them. It was agreed that a body of the Company's troops should be sent to aid the Nabob Visier in the conquest of the Rohilla country; that the whole expense of these troops while engaged upon that service should be borne by him; and that when the object was accomplished he should pay to the English a farther sum of forty Lacs of Rupees. Not many months elapsed before these stipulations were fulfilled. In April, 1774, an English brigade under Colonel Champion invaded the Rohilla districts; and in a hardfought battle gained a decisive victory over the Rohilla troops. Exactly half a century afterwards an English Bishop, on his first Visitation progress, found the whole scene still fresh in the traditions of the country. It was described to him how Hafiz, the Rohilla chief, an aged warrior, with a long grey beard, remained at last almost alone on a rising ground, in the heat of the fire, conspicuous by his splendid dress and stately horse, waving his hand, and vainly endeavouring to bring back his army to another charge; till, seeing that all was lost, he waved his hand once more, gave a shout, and galloped forwards to die, shot through and through, upon the English bayonets. The Nabob Visier applied for the body of Hafiz, that it might be cut in pieces and his grey head be carried on a pike about the country. But the English Colonel, with a nobler spirit, caused it to be wrapped in shawls and sent with due honour to his kinsmen. The other Afghan chiefs submitted, excepting only one, Fyzoola Khan, who continued his resistance, and was enabled at length to obtain some terms of peace from the Visier. Throughout this conflict, nothing could be more dastardly than the demeanour of the troops of Oude. They had slunk to the rear of the armies; they had kept aloof from the fight; and it was only after the battle was decided, INDIA.] THE ROHILLA WAR. 261 that they came forward to plunder the camp, and despoil the dead and dying. Many an indignant murmur was heard from the British ranks: "We have the honour of the day, and "these banditti, these robbers, are to have the profit!"* Nor was this all. The Visier and his soldiery next applied themselves to wreak their fury on the vanquished, and to lay waste with sword and fire the rich plains of Rohilcund. No terms whatever had been made by Hastings for the more humane and merciful conduct of the war; and Colonel Champion, in his private letters to the Governor, might well avow his fear that, although we stood free from all participation in these cruel deeds, the mere fact of our having been silent spectators of them, would tend, in the minds of the whole Indian people, to the dishonour of the English name. The case of Hastings as to the Rohillas a case at the best a bad one- was farther injured by the indiscretion of his friends. Some of them afterwards pleaded for him in the House of Commons, that the Rohillas were not among the native possessors of the soil in India, but only an invading tribe of foreign lineage and of recent conquest. With just indignation, Mr. Wilberforce exclaimed, “Why, what are we but the Rohillas of Bengal?”** But Hastings himself took better ground. Besides the pecuniary advantages, on which no question could exist, he had political arguments to urge in vindication of his treaty. It was of paramount importance to us to form a close alliance with Oude; and, on forming an alliance with that State, we had a full right to espouse its quarrels; nor could its frontier be made compact and defensible without the expulsion of the Rohillas, who, after all, even in their own districts, formed but a small minority of the entire population, and whose cause was in no degree supported by their Hindoo subjects. Statements of this kind, certainly specious, and even in some part true, but as certainly, I think, inadequate for vindication, had much weight at a later period with many able and Letter from Colonel Champion to Warren Hastings, April 24. 1774. ** Speech in the House of Commons, June 2, 1786. |