Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
Was the Madras Army professional in the 1830s? The answer depends largely upon the definition of professionalism. Professional standards in society at large and in military forces have changed over the past two hundred years. Major political decisions with enormous social and economic consequences are made by governments today based upon their understanding of military professionalism. This understanding should incorporate the historical record including nineteenth-century developments outside of Europe.
2 As Robert Frykenburg pointed out in ‘Company Circari in the Carnatic, c. 1799–1859: The Inner Logic of Political Systems in India,’ Realm and Region in Traditional India, ed. Fox, Richard G., Duke University Program in Comparative Studies on Southern Asia, Monograph and Occasional Paper Series, monograph no. 14 (1977), p. 139,Google Scholar‘Chaudhri's, S. R.Civil Disturbances during the British Rule in India: 1756–1857 (Calcutta, 1955), is useful as a listing of violent incidents.Google Scholar A careful analysis of each of these incidents has yet to be done.’ For the narrative analysis of the military suppression of the rebellion in the Vishakhapatnam District see my unpublished 1982 Duke University dissertation, ‘The Madras Army in the Northern Circars, 1832–1833: Pacification and Professionalism.’Google Scholar
3 Sir Fredrick Adam (1781–1853). Governor of Madras (1832–37): son of the Right Honorable William Adam; in the Army 1795; served in Egypt; in Sicily; in Spain as A.D.C. to the Prince Regent; as a brigade commander at Waterloo; as Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands (1824–26);.K.C.B., G.C.M.G., P.C., G.C.B., and General (1846): died 17 August 1853. Sir Fredrick's papers are included among the Adam of Blair–Adam Muniments held by the Adam family. The papers may be seen in Edinburgh with the family's permission at the National Register of Archives (Scotland).Google Scholar
4 Sir Henry George Andrew Taylor (1784–1876). General: entered Madras Army in 1798; served at Assaye and Argaum, 1803; at Gawilghar, 1805; under Sir Barry Close, 1809; in the Commissariat, 1811–1819; under Sir John Doveton in the Pindarry War; as Town Major of Madras, 1825; as brigadier at Vellore, 1828; and as commander of the Northern Division of the Madras Army, 1832–1837, suppressed rebellions in the Vishakhapatnam and Ganjam Districts: retired 1838: C.B., General in 1857, K.C.B., G.C.B.: died 9 February 1876 as the oldest general in the British Army. Sir Henry's papers are held by the William R. Perkins Library at Duke University.Google Scholar
5 Huntington, Samuel P., The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil–Military Politics (New York: Random House, 1957; Vintage Books, 1957).Google Scholar
6 Janowitz, Morris, The Professional Soldier: A Social and Political Portrait (London: Collier–Macmillan Ltd, 1960; New York: The Free Press, 1971).Google Scholar
7 Huntington, , The Soldier and the State, p. 8.Google Scholar
8 Ibid., p. 15.
9 Janowitz, , The Professional Soldier, pp. 35–6.Google Scholar
10 Ibid., p. 8.
11 See Lt Col.Shiner, John F., ‘The Military Professional in America’ in Concepts for Air Force Leadership (Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Air University, 1983), pp. 1–30—1–36.Google Scholar See also Baucom, Donald R., ‘The Professional Soldier and the Warrior Spirit,’ Strategic Review, Fall 1985, pp. 57–66.Google Scholar
12 Janowitz has also written on military professionalism focusing on civil–military relations outside of Europe but his most important work covers only the contemporary period and does not deal with the nineteenth century. Janowitz, Morris, The Military in the Political Development of New Nations: An Essay in Comparative Analysis (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, Phoenix Books, 1964) and an expanded version of the same work,Google ScholarJanowitz, Morris, Military Institutions and Coercion in the Developing Nations (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1977).Google ScholarJanowitz, also edited Civil–Military Relations: Regional Perspectives (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1981) which, although dealing with the world outside of Europe and the U.S., is virtually limited to the twentieth century.Google ScholarHuntington's, work includes the editing of Changing Patterns of Military Politics (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, Inc., 1962) which includes discussions of military forces outside of the U.S. and Europe but is concerned with the contemporary world and largely draws its evidence from the same period.Google Scholar
13 Feld, Maury D., The Structure of Violence: Armed Forces as Social Systems (Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1977).Google Scholar
14 Feld, , ‘A Typology of Military Organization,’ The Structure of Violence, p. 62.Google Scholar
15 Ibid., pp. 34–5.
16 Feld, , ‘Military Discipline as a Social Force,’ The Structure of Violence, pp. 22–3.Google Scholar
17 These categories of personnel policies and programs represent this author's concept of the most important categories of personnel programs and policies for analysis of a military force rather than a British imperial social taxonomy imposed on South Asia.Google Scholar
18 Callahan, Raymond, The East India Company and Army Reform, 1783–1798 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972), pp. 16–17. His second chapter, ‘Men without Interest: The Company's Officers,’ makes it quite clear that the vast majority of the Company's military officers served in India during the late eighteenth century because they lacked the money and the connections successfully to pursue a public career in Britain or simply needed the money they could make in India. The same basic motivations still existed in the early nineteenth century.Google Scholar See also: Embree, Ainslie T., Charles Grant and British Rule in India (New York: Columbia University Press, 1962), pp. 123–9, and 178–86.Google Scholar
19 This important institution awaits a modern historical analysis. The best account is Vibart, H. M., Addiscombe: Its Heros and Men of Note (1894).Google Scholar
20 ‘The East India Company Seminary,’ United Service Journal, Part II, 1829, p. 226.Google Scholar
21 GOG, 4 July. 1834, in Gordon, R., An Abridgement of the General Orders, Issued at the Presidency of Fort Saint George, from 1800 to 30th June 1840 (Madras: J. B. Pharoah, 1840), p. 100.Google Scholar
22 Ltr from Taylor, H.G.A. to Sir Fredrick Adam, 13 Feb. 1833, General Taylor Papers; GOG, 2 May 1810, Gordon, p. 441,Google Scholar and GOG, 8 June 1816, Gordon, p. 442.Google Scholar
23 Ltr from H. G. A. Taylor to Fredrick Adam Sir, 13 Feb. 1833, General Taylor Papers.Google Scholar
24 GOG, 18 Apr. 1826; MMDC No. 24, 2 March. 1832, P/264/77. (To tell the reader as much as possible about the sources, the Consultation number, offices involved, and author, if known, of all documents from the India Office and Records are cited as well as the shelf mark.) Adjutant General's Office,Google ScholarA List of the Officers of the Army, Ordnance and Medical Departments, Serving under the Presidency of Fort Saint George (Madras: Asylum Press, 30 06 1832), p. 78. Hereafter FSG Army List. The records do not explain what disorder and irregularity existed in the 47th NI.Google Scholar
25 Ltr from H. G. A. Taylor to Sir Fredrick Adam, 2 Feb. 1833, General Taylor Papers.Google Scholar
26 FSG Army List, 30 June 1833, ‘Alterations while Printing’, and p. 78.Google Scholar
27 Ltr from R. Clerk Sec. to Gvt to Pres. and Mbrs Mar. Bd, 13 June 1832, MMDC No. 61, 6 July 1832, P/264/85.Google Scholar
28 Minute of CIC signed O'Callaghan, 16 Oct. 1832, MMDC No. 8, 13 Nov. 1832, P/264/94.Google Scholar
29 President's Minute signed Lushington, 19 Oct. 1832, MMDC No. 8, 13 Nov. 1832, P/264/94.Google Scholar
30 GOG, 23 Aug. 1833, Fort Saint George Gazette, 1833, V/11/1587. Hereafter FSGG.Google Scholar
31 GOG, 19 Aug. 1836, Gordon, pp. 418–23.Google Scholar
32 Wilkinson, Theon, Two Monsoons (London: Duckworth, 1976), p. 45.Google Scholar
33 GOG, 29 Dec. 1800, Gordon, p. 257.Google Scholar
34 GOG, 10 Feb. 1801, Gordon, p. 257.Google Scholar
35 GOG, 21 Oct. 1836, Gordon, p. 262.Google Scholar
36 GOG, 29 Jul. 1831, Gordon, pp. 395–7.Google Scholar
37 GOG, 10 Jun. 1836, Gordon, pp. 261–2.Google Scholar
38 Harris, George, First Baron, of Seringapatnam and Mysore (1746–1829); CIC Madras 1796–1800 and Acting Governor Feb.–Aug. 1798.Google ScholarBuckland, C. E., Dictionary of Indian Biography (London: Swan, & Co., Ltd, 1906; reprint ed., Varanasi, : Indological Book House, 1971), p. 191.Google Scholar
39 Ltr from H. G. A. Taylor to Fredrick Sir Adam, 26 July 1834, General Taylor Papers.Google Scholar
40 Buckland, , p. 416.Google Scholar
41 Adjutant General's Office, General Regulations of the Madras Army (Madras: Military Male Orphan Asylum Press, 1849), p. 108.Google Scholar
42 Ltr signed ‘CO’ in the Madras Male Military Asylum Herald, 7 June 1834.Google Scholar
43 Roll of Native Commissioned and Non-Commissioned Officers Recommended for Promotion in the 49th Regiment Native Infantry signed Hodson, S. I. Lt Col. Cmdg, 5 Sep. 1834, MMDC No. 27, 26 Sep. 1834, P/265/53.Google Scholar
44 Roll of a Jemadar & Havildar recommended for Promotion to the Rank of Subadar & Jemadar respectively in the 28th Regt NI signed J. Green Lt Col. Cmdg, 29 Aug. 1834, MMDC No. 36, 12 Sep. 1834, P/265/52.Google Scholar
45 GOG, 2 Feb. 1819, Gordon, p. 355.Google Scholar
46 Ltr from B. R. Hitchins Act'g AG of the Army to Sec. to Gvt Mil. Dept, 19 Apr. 1833, MMDC Nos 15 and 16, 23 Apr. 1833, P/265/11.Google Scholar
47 Military Auditor General, Annual Madras Military Statement, 24 Dec. 1834, p. 19, L/MIL/8/107. Ltr from B. R. Hitchins Act'g AG to Sec. to Gvt Mil. Dept, 29 Nov. 1832, MMDC No. 8, 14 Dec. 1832, P/264/96. Ltr from B. R. Hitchins Act'g AG to Sec. to Gvt Mil. Dept, 15 Feb. 1833, and ltr from W. Cullen Mil. Aud. Gen. to Gov. in Council, 24 May 1833, MMDC Nos 49 and 50, P/265/15. Minute by the Governor from Fredrick Adam, 21 Aug. 1834, MMDC No. 13, 5 Sep. 1834, P/265/51; and GOG, 24 Jan. 1837, Gordon, p. 249.Google Scholar
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48 Ltr from Wheatley, T. R. Sec. to Gvt to Russell, G. E. Commissioner, 26 Feb. 1833, in Bd's Col. 56368, pp. 75–6.Google Scholar
49 GOG, 23 Aug. 1833; FSGG, 1833, p. 617, V/11/1587.Google Scholar
50 Statement of the Honorary distinctions and Allowances which have been Conferred on Members of the Madras Army during the last Ten Years, Commencing from January 1823, signed Hitchins, B. R. Act'g AG of the Army, 27 Nov. 1832, MMDC No. 22, 4 Dec. 1832, P/264/95.Google Scholar
51 Ltr signed CO in the Madras Male Military Asylum Herald, 21 June 1834.Google Scholar
52 GOG, 12 Nov. 1839, Gordon, p. 252.Google Scholar
53 GOG, 16 Jun. 1807, Gordon, p. 153.Google Scholar
54 Memorandum attached to ltr from H. G. A. Taylor to Fredrick Sir Adam, 5 Feb. 1833, General Taylor Papers.Google Scholar
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56 The language study discussed here is part of the British use of Indian languages as instruments of control which is the first of three projects Bernard Cohen identifices as growing from ‘British studies of Indian languages, literature, science, and thought…’ Cohen, Bernard S., ‘The Command of Language and the Language of Command,’ Subaltern Studies IV: Writings on South Asian History and Society (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1985), p. 316. Cohen does not deal in depth with language study in the Madras Army.Google Scholar
57 ‘The East India Company's Military Seminary,’ United Service Journal, Part II, 1829, p. 226. Army Hindoostanee was a mixture of modern Hindi and Urdu.Google Scholar
58 Ibid., p. 229.
59 GOG, 6 Feb. 1824, Gordon, p. 351.Google Scholar
60 Ibid..
61 GOG, 9 Oct. 1829, Gordon, p. 351.Google Scholar At this time a lieutenant in the Madras Native Infantry earned pay of Rupees 62 plus allowances of Rupees 164 for a total of Rupees 226 per month without a staff appointment. Military Auditor General, Annual Madras Military Statement, 24 Dec. 1834, p. 19, L/MIL/8/107.Google Scholar
62 Mil. Aud. Gen., Annual Madras Military Statement, 24 Dec. 1834, p. 19, L/MIL/8/107.Google Scholar
63 GOG, 10 Aug. 1830; and GOG, 20 Feb. 1835, Gordon, pp. 352–3.Google Scholar
64 GOCC, 25 Nov. 1829, Gordon, p. 351.Google Scholar
65 Cohen, , ‘The Command of Language,’ p. 314.Google Scholar
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69 Ltr from H. G. A. Taylor BG to Maj. Hodges Pvt. Sec., 8 Jan. 1833, General Taylor Papers.Google Scholar
70 Ltr signed A Regimental Officer in Madras Male Military Asylum Herald, 20 Aug. 1834.Google Scholar
71 Memorandum attached to ltr from H. G. A. Taylor to Fredrick Sir Adam, 5 Feb. 1833, General Taylor Papers.Google Scholar
72 ‘Memoir of General SirTaylor, H. G. A., G.C.B.’, United Service Magazine, Part I, 1876, pp. 472–4.Google Scholar
73 Ltr from B. R. Hitchins Act'g AG of the Army to Gov. in Council, 5 Mar. 1833, MMDC No. 26, 25 June 1833, P/265/16.Google Scholar
74 GOG, 24 Sep. 1806, Gordon, p. 193.Google Scholar
75 ‘Memoir of General SirTaylor, G. G. A., G.C.B.’, United Service Magazine, Part I, 1876, p. 477.Google Scholar
76 Ltr from Lt Col. J. M. Coombs Cmdg Palaveram to QMG, 12 Dec. 1831, MMDC No. 106, 6 Jan. 1832, P/264/74.Google Scholar
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77 General Regulations, pp. 99–100.Google Scholar
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79 Ltr from B. R. Hitchins Act'g AG to Sec. to Gvt Mil. Dept, 28 Mar. 1832, MMDC Nos 33 and 35.Google Scholar
80 Comparative Statement of the Expense on Account of Stationery Supplied from the Public Stores to the Military Department, during the years 1831/32–1832/33 from Mil. Bd, 17 Dec. 1833, MMDC No. 29, 27 Dec. 1833, P/265/27.Google Scholar
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82 MMDC No. 13, 6 Mar. 1832, P/264/13, and FSG Army List, p. 150. No cause of death was listed.Google Scholar