Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T20:00:28.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The British in Benares: A Nineteenth Century Colonial Society*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Bernard S. Cohn
Affiliation:
University of Rochester

Extract

The diffusion of British institutions, ideas, and values and the spread of the English language and of British peoples are among the major events in modern history. The study of the effects of this diffusion in the New World, Africa, and Asia in shaping political institutions in these regions has attracted many scholars, but the systematic and analytic study of the British themselves and of the societies and cultures they built overseas in their African and Asian colonies has thus far been neglected, except in the memoir and travel literature.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1962

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Sleeman, W. H., Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official (Oxford, 1915), originally published 1844, p. V.Google Scholar

2 H. Morse Stephens, “An Account of the East India College at Haileybury (1806–1857)”, in Lowell, Abbot Lawrence, ed. Colonial Civil Service (New York, 1900), pp. 233346Google Scholar; and Danvers, F. C., et. al., Memorials of Old Haileybury College (Westminster, 1894).Google Scholar

3 Stokes, Eric, The English Utilitarians and India (Oxford, 1959)Google Scholar; and Young, G. M., Victorian England: Portrait of an Age (London, 1936).Google Scholar

4 Holtzman, James, The Nabobs (New York, 1926), pp. 713; see the discussion of the Barton case below.Google Scholar

5 Dodwell, H. H., Nabobs of Madras (London, 1926), pp. 206210Google Scholar; Thompson, Edward, Life of Charles Lord Metcalfe (London, 1937), p. 101.Google Scholar

8 Heber, Reginald, Narrative of a Journey Through the Upper Provinces of India, from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824–1825 (Philadelphia, 1828), I, 487, 505–506.Google Scholar

7 “Copy of the 15th and 35th Interrogations proposed by the Governor General in Council of Bengal to the judges of Circuit and zillah judges in 1801: With the answers of said judges to these interrogatories,” House of Commons, Parliamentary Papers (East India Co.), VIII, Second part, Session 24 November-22 July 1812–1813.

8 Muller, F. Max, “On the Truthfulness of Indians”, in India What it can Teach Us (London, 1882, reprinted 1892), pp. 3435.Google Scholar

9 Edwardes, Michael, ed., My Indian Mutiny Diary, by Russell, William H., “The Mutiny and its Consequences” (London, 1957), pp. xxii–xxviiiGoogle Scholar. Also see Trevelyan, G. O., The Competition Wallah (London, 1866), pp. 238281.Google Scholar

10 Pearson, Hugh, Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of the Reverend Christian Frederick Swartz, 2 vols., 2nd ed. (London, 1835).Google Scholar

11 Richter, Julius, A History of Missions in India, trans. Moore, Sydney H. (New York, 1908), pp. 135136;Google ScholarCarey, S. Pearce, William Carey (London, 1923), pp. 205215.Google Scholar

12 See Adam's Reports on Vernacular Education in Bengal and Behar 1835, 1836, 1838 (Calcutta, 1868)Google Scholar; Sanial, S. C., “The Rev. William Adam”, Bengal Past and Present, VIII (01–06 1914), 251272.Google Scholar

13 Kaye, John, Lives of Indian Officers, I, new ed. (London, 1904).Google Scholar

14 The figures for birthplace are based on the sources cited in the footnote to Table II. The breakdown for place of birth within England is as follows: Surry, 3; Berkshire, 1; Hampshire, 2; Hertford, 2; Kent, 1; Warwick, 4; Lancashire, 1; Cheshire, 1; Northampton, 1; Somerset, 2; Cornwall, 2; London, 17.

15 Blunt, E. A. H., The I. C. S. (London, 1937), pp. 3435.Google Scholar

16 Foster, Sir John, “An Anglo-Indian Boarding School”, in John Company (London, 1926), pp. 224232.Google Scholar

17 Philips, C. H., The East India Company 1784–1834 (Manchester), 1941, p. 14.Google Scholar

18 Ibid., p. 15.

19 Ibid., p. 15–.16

20 Colebrooke, T. E., Life of the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone (London, 1884), I, p. 4.Google Scholar

21 Cotton, J. S., Mountstuart Elphinstone (Oxford, 1892).Google Scholar

22 Colebrooke, , op. cit., p. 12.Google Scholar

23 The Prince of Wales to Earl Cornwallis, letter sent May, 1789, received June, 1790, pp. 27–28, ed. Ross, Charles, Correspondence of Charles, First Marquis Cornwallis (London, 1859), II, 27–28.Google Scholar

24 Ibid., pp. 34–35. Cornwallis' reply is dated August 14.

25 Kaye, Sir John, Peregrine Pultuney: Or Life in India (London, 1844), pp. 1213.Google Scholar

26 Burke's Peerage (London, 1906), p. 405.Google Scholar

27 India Office Library, Personal Records.

28 Buckland, C. E., Dictionary of Indian Biography (London, 1906), p. 104.Google Scholar

29 Chicheley-Plowden, Walter F. C., Records of the Chicheley-Plowdens A. D. 1590–1913 (London, 1914), p. 151.Google Scholar

30 Ibid., p. 161.

31 Ibid., p. 18–40.

32 Roebuck, , The Annals of the College at Fort William (Calcutta, 1819), pp. i–xxvii.Google Scholar

33 Danvers, F. C., “Origin of the East India Company's Civil Service and of Haileybury College”, in Danvers, F. C.et. al., Memorials of Old Haileybury College (Westminster, 1894), pp. 1420.Google Scholar

34 Campbell, Sir George, Memoirs of My Indian Career (London, 1893), I, 9.Google Scholar

35 House of Commons, Parliamentary Papers (Session 1831–1832), XII, 129, Questions 1076 and ff.

36 Campbell, Sir George, op. cit., p. 17.Google Scholar

37 Remarks on the Town of Benares by F. Wilford Surveyor”, Allahabad Central Record Office, Proceedings of the Resident of Benares (07 26, 1790), Basta No. 28, Vol. XXXII.Google Scholar

38 Prinsep, James, “Minute on the Abolition of the Committees of Improvement 1 November 1829”, Allahabad Central Record Office, Benares Commissioner's Office, Proceedings of the Committee on Local Improvement in the City of Benares 1828–1829, Basta No. 96, Vol. CLXXX.Google Scholar

39 Davis, John Francis, Vizier Ali or the Massacre of Benares (London, 1844), p. 14.Google Scholar

40 Quoted in Dewar, Douglas, By Gone Days in India (London, 1922), pp. 3233.Google Scholar

41 Quoted in Gold, Charles, Oriental Drawings Sketched Between the years 1791 and 1798 (London, 1806), no pagination.Google Scholar

42 India Office Library, Personal Records, XII, 613614.Google Scholar

43 Allahabad Central Record Office, Proceedings of the Commissioner of Behar and Benares, Vol. 8, Porc. of 18 Sept. 1816, # 136, Deane to Earl of Moira.

44 Allahabad Central Record Office, Benares Commissioner's Office, Ghazipur Revenue Files, Vol. 101, File No. 1487, Circular from Sudder Board of Revenue, Allahabad, 22 March, 1833.

45 Allahabad Central Record Office, Ghazipur Collectorate, Copies of Miscellaneous Correspondence, 1820–1827, Barlow to Tilghman, 4 March, 1822.

46 Allahabad Central Record Office, Benares Collector's Office, Miscellaneous Files, Vol. 72, File No. 149, “Annual Reports sent to the Sessions Judge for 1845”.

47 India Office Library, Home Miscellaneous Series, Vol. 525, “James Cumming's Papers”, p. 69.

48 Khan, Panchkauree (George Wyatt), The Revelations of an Orderly (Benares, 1848), pp. 9495.Google Scholar

49 Ibid., p. 74.

50 Shore, F. J., Notes on Indian Affairs (London, 1837), I, 238240.Google Scholar

51 Quoted in Sources of Indian Tradition, ed. deBary, Wm. Theodore, Stephen Hay, Royal Weiler and Andrew Yarrow (New York, 1958), p. 601.Google Scholar

52 J. B. Harrison, “Notes on W. H. Moreland”, School of Asian and African Studies, Historical Writing on the Peoples of Asia: South Asia Seminar, memo., 1956.

53 Dictionary of National Biography, XLVI, 395Google Scholar; and Prinsep, ”Memoir of the Author“, ed. Thomas, Edward, Essays on Indian Antiquities of James Prinsep (London, 1858), I, i-xvi.Google Scholar

54 The work of Prinsep and the committee of which he was the guiding force is found in Allahabad Central Record Office, Benares Commissioner's Office, Proceedings of the Committee on Local Improvement in the City of Benares, 1823–1829, Basta No. 96, Vol. 180.

55 Ibid., Prinsep's Minute of 1 November, 1829.

56 Roberts, Emma, Scenes and Characteristics of Hindustan (London, 1835), I, 253.Google Scholar

57 Prinsep, James, ”Census of the Population of the City of Benares“, Asiatick Researches, XVII (1832), 472773.Google Scholar

58 A trial concerning the corruption of an English officer is discussed by Spear, T. G. in ”The Colebrooke Case“, in Twilight of the Mughals: Studies in Late Mughal Delhi (Cambridge, 1951), pp. 167181.Google Scholar

59 India Office Library, Bengal Revenue Consultations (1 11, 1805).Google Scholar

60 India Office Library, Bengal Civil Judicial Proceedings (2 07, 1807), Report of the Commissioners of Benares.Google Scholar

61 India Office Library, Bengal Civil Judicial Proceedings (2 07 1807), Report of the Commissioners of Benares.Google Scholar

62 Hastings, Warren, ”The Benares Diary“, ed. Davies, C. C., Camden Miscellany (London, 1948), XVIII, 31.Google Scholar

63 India Office Library, Europeans Not in Company Employ—Bengal, Vol. I.

64 India Office Library, Bengal Civil Judicial Proceedings, 10 August, 1798, No. 4; Allahabad Central Record Office, Mirzapur Collectorate, Letters Issued by the Magistrate, Vol. 79, “Report of Europeans resident in the District of Mirzapur not in the service of His Majesty or the East India Co. 5 Jan. 1820”.

65 Allahabad Central Record Office, Benares Commissioner's Office, Mirzapur Revenue Files, Vol. 85, File No. 1398, “Settlement Report of Pargana Kantit”, 1 September, 1842.

66 Allahabad Central Record Office, Benares Commissioner's Office, Mirzapur Judicial Files, Vol. I, File No. 2, Tucker from Roberts, 4 April, 1854; India Office Library, Bengal Civil Judicial Proceedings (16 October, 1800), No. la, “Translation of a Derkhaust from Rajah Oditnarain Sing”.

67 Ibid., Secretary to Provincial Court Appeal (16 October, 1800).

68 India Office Library, Bengal Civil Judicial Proceedings 18 March, 1796, No. 6, Benares Court of Appeal to Secretary in Judicial Department.

69 India Office Library, Bengal Civil Judicial Proceedings, 4 December, 1795, No. 19; Allahabad Central Record Office, Mirzapur Collectorate, Letters Issued by the Magistrate, Vol. 81, Tayler to Shakespear (3 February, 1830).

70 Allahabad Central Record Office, Ghazipur Collectorate, “Copies of Miscellaneous Correspondence 1797–1807“, Graham to Dodwell, 9 July, 1807, in consultation of 25 August, 1807.

71 Allahabad Central Record Office, Pre-Mutiny Records Relating to the Family Domains of the Maharaja of Benares, Letters Issued, Vol. I, No. 190 (4), Bird to Prinsep, 25 May, 1827, paragraphs 94 to 113.

72 Sherring, M. A., History of Protestant Missions in India (London, 1875), p. 183.Google Scholar

73 Ibid., pp. 184–185.

74 Buyers, William, Recollections of Northern India (London, 1848), p. 284.Google Scholar

75 For changing policies and attitudes of the Company see Ingham, Kenneth, Reformers in India 1793–1833 (Cambridge, 1956)Google Scholar; and Stokes, Eric, The English Utilitarians and India (Oxford, 1959), pp. 2735.Google Scholar

76 Church Mission Society Archives, Reports of Church Missionary Associations, 1/10 15 b., Benares Church Missionary Association, 11th Report, October 1, 1848.

77 Church Mission Society Archives, C I 1/0 76, North India Mission, Rev. Clement Cobb, Letters, Journals, Reports, 1852–1860, Letter of 16 February, 1853.

78 Blunt, E. A. H., Christian Tombs and Monuments of the United Provinces (Allahabad, 1911), p. 195.Google Scholar

79 Wheller, P. C., Report of the Revision of Records and Settlement Operations in the District of launpur from 1877–1876 (Allahabad, 1886), p. 48.Google Scholar

80 Allahabad Central Record Office, Proceedings of the Sudder Board of Revenue, North Western Provinces, Vol. No. 263, October 4, 1844, Barwise to Sec SBR, 21 July, 1844.

81 See Raja Mahesh Narain Singh vs. Kishnanand Misr”, Moore's Indian Appeals, Vol. 7 (1863).Google Scholar

82 Allahabad Central Record Office, Mirzapur Collectorate, Pre-Mutiny Records, Vol. 22, Revenue Files, Christian to Roberts (22 November, 1844).

83 For the significance of the swimming bath in Anglo-Indian social life, see Atkinson, George F., “Our Bath”, Curry and Rice on Forty Plates (London, 1824), no pagination.Google Scholar

84 Huggins, William, Sketches in India (London, 1824), p. 145.Google Scholar

85 Ibid., p. 147.

86 Ibid., p. 148.