Essays on 19th Century IndiaPindaris, Thugs, Indian Police, Wolf Boys,

Uprising 1857-Delhi and Lucknow and Famines of Colonial India

Foreword In early November, 2010 I heard Rajesh Rampal give a lecture to a British military audience at the Gurkha

Museum in Winchester. Its title was 'The Siege and Assault of Delhi, 1857: a case study for any army that wants to punch beyond its weight' – it is reproduced in this collection of essays. This was a bold lecture to give in front of professionals, particularly by a civilian resident of Delhi who was a Chartered Accountant without any training either as historian or soldier. He is also, of course, Indian and although that seemed to pass without notice, a lot less than a century ago the very notion of this lecture would have been inconceivable. Yet Rajesh's knowledge, charm and confidence as a public speaker held the attention of all of us. T

These essays are typical of Rajesh's unique status. No academic historian would compile such an eclectic anthology and this is a compliment! It covers contemporary writing such as Sir William Sleeman's observations of 'Wolf Children' (a fascinating essay) and the diary of Munshi Jeewan Lal, who provided the British with information about the rebel forces from inside Delhi during the siege; this did not stop the avenging army from looting his house. Then there are new findings of today, such as Dr. McEldowney's essay on the Pindari horse-riding bandits who terrorised the Maratha states until suppressed by Lord Hastings in 1819, and my own disturbing experiences in India a hundred years after the 'Great Mutiny' ('Are embers of 1857 still smouldering in India').

Rajesh's own essays are crammed with fact and prone to diversions that are the prerogative of the enthusiast, and none the worse for that. No one can accuse him of bias. While his admiration for the British army that recaptured and laid waste his city may be remarkable in 'The Assault on Delhi, September 1857', his 'Famines of Colonial India 1860 – 1900' is an outspoken criticism of the British Indian Government's indifference and its ignorant policies. I did not know that in 1876 when the British held a grand durbar to proclaim Queen Victoria as Empress of India, 100,000 Indians were dying of famine in the south of the country. Incidentally, the statistical tables and bar charts in this essay give away Rajesh's past as an accountant! Rajesh's essay on Thuggee 'Organised crime in the garb of religion' is very well informed because he has already written a book on the subject, 'The Divine Stranglers'. Always, his writing is entertaining and individual however much he relies on secondary as well as primary sources.

What holds these essays together is the authors sense that the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in India, when the East India Company was but the most prominent of rulers, were times of awful anarchy and turbulence. He quotes from the epic love story Heer Ranja, by the Punjabi poet Waris Shah (1722 – 1798) in his earlier book, The Divine Stranglers:

Great confusion has fallen on the countryThere is a sword in everyman's hand.The veil of shame and modesty has been lifted,And the entire world goes naked in the open bazaar.Thieves have become leaders,Harlots have become mistresses of the households.The company of devils has magnified exceedingly,The state of the multitude is pitiable.Men without character flourish and the devil is in great prosperity,Fools have become masters of our country.This is the background to these stirring essays that I recommend to all lovers of BritishIndian history, and those who wish to draw lessons from the past.Hugh Purcell10/7/2012

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