Sir John Shore

Sir John Shore governor-general—Death of Mahadajee Scindia—War between the Nizam and the Mahrattas—Death of the Peishwa—Disputed succession in Oude—Death of Mahomed Ali—War with the Dutch.

Difficulty was felt in appointing a successor to Marquis Cornwallis. Mr. Dundas, owing to this difficulty, had some thoughts of taking the office upon himself, and in a letter dated September 17, 1792, referring to the appointment of a successor, wrote him as follows: “I can assure your lordship you have never imposed any task upon me that I have found more difficult to accomplish. The truth is, I had almost despaired of it, and it is not a month since I had determined to write to you, entreating you to remain a few months more, and promising that if we did not find a successor in the winter to our mind, I would come out to India myself, the moment the charter of the East India Company should be settled, sooner than which time it was impossible for me to leave this country.” When the office of Governor of India had thus gone abegging, the name of Mr. Shore was mentioned. To his appointment there was only one serious objection. The appointment of Marquis Cornwallis was the first in which a previous connection with the Company had not been deemed necessary, and the success of his administration had gone far to confirm the opinion that all future appointments should be made on the same principle. Indeed, Marquis Cornwallis, when not aware that there was any intention of appointing Mr. Shore, had written to Mr. Dundas, that he hoped never again to see the supreme government in the hands of a Company’s servant, and inclined in confirmation of this opinion, a letter, in which the writer, declared to be “one of the most able and honourable men in Bengal,” had thus expressed himself: “The Company’s servants are certainly the most fit persons for members of council, but from what I have seen since his lordship’s departure (for the war against Tippoo), I am convinced that it could never answer to appoint any of them to the government. Such is the present temper of the British part of the community in India, that it appears to me that nobody but a person who has never been in the service, and who is entirely unconnected with the individuals who compose it, who is of a rank far surpassing his associates in the government, and has the full support of the ministry at home, can be competent to govern our possessions with that energy and vigour which is essential to our political safety and internal prosperity.” The king himself appears to have been of the same opinion, for in a holograph letter to Mr. Dundas, dated “Weymouth, September 5, 1792, 4 P.M.,” he says, “Unless a very proper man of distinction could have been found to be governor-general at Bengal, no one could have been so properly thought of as Mr. Shore, who will more certainly follow the civil plan Lord Cornwallis has laid down than any other person.”

As the “very proper man of distinction” desired by his majesty was not forthcoming, Mr. Shore obtained the appointment, and along with it a baronetage. According to Mr. Dundas’ account, he had not only the recommendation mentioned by the king of being certain to follow the civil plan of Lord Cornwallis, of which he was in fact the author, though he would have preferred a decennial to a perpetual settlement, but had moreover expressed his readiness to place himself entirely at the disposal of the ministry, being “willing either to remain for a few years at the head of the government, or to become second in the council, if we think it right, upon further inquiry, to send out any other person from this country, or to come home again, if that suits our arrangements best.” In other words, Mr. Dundas intimates that Sir John Shore was merely to keep the vacancy supplied till the king’s “very proper man of distinction” could be found. In the above holograph letter, his majesty had added, after the passage already quoted, “I trust at the same time, a seat at the supreme council will be conferred on Major-general Abercrombie, and the commission of a commander-in-chief of the forces in the East Indies; and a fit person intrusted with the command of the forces in the Carnatic.” In accordance with these wishes, which of course were received by Mr. Dundas as commands, Major-general Abercrombie obtained his appointments. About the same time, Lord Hobart was appointed to succeed Sir Charles Oakley as governor of Madras, and in the event of the death, resignation, or departure of Sir John Shore, was to become governor-general.

Sir John Shore arrived in Calcutta some time before Marquis Cornwallis finally left it, but he did not enter formally on the duties of government till the 28th of October, 1793. An European war, sprung out of the French revolution, was then raging. As yet, however, its effects were little felt in the East, and the peace of India remained undisturbed. Tippoo, having performed his obligations under the treaty, claimed the restoration of his sons. Some objections by the Nizam, on the ground that Tippoo was making claims upon him inconsistent with the treaty, in respect to the district of Kurnool, were overruled, and the two princes, sent off from Madras under the charge of Captain Doveton, were formally restored to their father at Deonhully, on the 28th of March, 1794. Before their arrival, Tippoo had submitted to his counsellors in writing the important question, whether or not he should admit the Englishman to his presence. Their answer was, that as the refusal to receive him might excite suspicion, “he might be amused with professions of friendship, while whatever is in the heart may nevertheless remain there.” Tippoo resolved to act on this advice, and left his capital for Deonhully. His tent was pitched on a plain in its vicinity. The two boys, on entering it with Captain Doveton, approached as if completely overawed, and when close to the musnud, placed their heads on their father’s feet; he, apparently unmoved, and without saying a word, touched their necks with his hands; on this they arose, and he pointed to their seats. Captain Doveton, on making his obeisance, was pointed in like manner to a seat near theirs, and an animated conversation ensued, Tippoo talking with great ease and fluency on the wonders of the French revolution in making head against all Europe, on Lord Macartney’s embassy to China, and various other leading topics of the day. During subsequent interviews, he declared to Captain Doveton that he deemed Lord Cornwallis his best friend, that he would be governed by his advice to forget the past, and would in future cultivate the friendship of the English nation as the primary object of his policy. The future showed that while he thus spoke, he was acting literally on the advice of his counsellors, expressing friendship, and at the same time concealing what was in the heart.

The first subject of importance which engaged the attention of the new governor-general was the state of the relations between the Mahrattas and the Nizam. The mutual guarantee proposed by Marquis Cornwallis had, as we have seen, been rejected, simply because it would have bound the Mahrattas to a course of policy which they were determined not to follow. Fear of Tippoo, or a desire to share in the partition of his territories, had induced them to become parties to the confederacy against him, but this object accomplished, they were no longer willing to be the ally, because they were determined to be the absolute masters of the Nizam. Aware of this determination, the Nizam used every endeavour to obtain the guarantee, and was willing for that purpose to have made such concessions as would almost have brought him into a state of vassalage under the Company. Marquis Cornwallis, however, stretching the system of neutrality beyond its fair limits, refused to give more than a vague assurance that the British government would faithfully fulfil all its obligations under existing treaties. Sir John Shore, when applied to, nearly repeated the same answer, and left the Nizam no alternative but to seek security from some other quarter. Accordingly, he employed a Frenchman of the name of Raymond, who possessed good military talents, and had for some time been in his service, not only to organize native troops, but to form battalions of his own countrymen.

While the Nizam was endeavouring to enter into closer alliance with the British, the Mahrattas were pursuing an opposite course. In particular, Mahadajee Scindia, who was deeply offended because the extravagant terms on which he had at one time offered to furnish a contingent to the war against Tippoo were not accepted, had used all his influence to prevent the conclusion of any treaty of guarantee. The English, he said, were already too powerful, and instead of taking any step which would tend to increase their influence, a much wiser policy would be to employ Tippoo as a counterpoise to it. In accordance with these views, the Mahrattas actually entered into an alliance with Tippoo, the object of which was understood to be the destruction of the Nizam, and thereafter a combined effort against the Company. These measures were only in contemplation when Mahadajee Scindia was suddenly cut off by fever at Wunowlee, in the vicinity of Poonah, on the 12th of February, 1794. Though nominally the subject of the peishwa, he was evidently aspiring to be his master, and had risen to a degree of power which would doubtless have enabled him, if he had lived, to accomplish the object of his ambition. Some short account of him will therefore not be out of place.

The family of Scindia are Sudras. Ranojee Scindia, the first of its members who acquired much distinction, had become by hereditary right the potail or headman of a village, when he was taken into the service of the peishwa, Balajee Row. His nominal office was to carry the peishwa’s slippers. Though humble, it was deemed, like all court offices, honourable, and, what was of more consequence, gave Ranojee an opportunity of acquiring influence with his master. After the death of Balajee Row, his son Bajee Row continued him in his office, and treated him with still more favour. He had one day, on coming out from a long audience, found Ranojee asleep on his back, with the slippers clasped in his hands on his breast, and was so pleased with this simple proof of fidelity, that he immediately gave him a place in the pagah, or body-guard. It is said that Ranojee ever after “carried with him, carefully packed in a box, a pair of the peishwa’s old slippers, which he never ceased to regard with almost religious veneration as the source of his rise.”¹ In his new station he distinguished himself as an active enterprising soldier, and at his death, though largely in debt to Mulhar Row Holkar, with whom he had formed an intimate connection, was in possession of a valuable jaghire. He left four sons, three legitimate, by Meenah Baee, a native of the Deccan, and one illegitimate, by a Rajpoot woman, a native of Malwah. The illegitimate son was Mahadajee Scindia. After his brothers as well as a nephew who had held the jaghire were dead, he succeeded in supplanting another nephew, and being put in possession of the jaghire, became the recognized head of the family. He was present at the fatal battle of Paniput, and during the flight was closely pursued by an Afghan. He rode a fine Deccany mare, which soon carried him far ahead, but whenever he halted a moment for rest, he saw the Afghan, who rode a strong ambling steed, following close upon his track. Ultimately, the mare completely exhausted fell into a ditch, and Mahadajee was taken. His enemy, after wounding him with a battle-axe, which deprived him for life of the use of his right leg, stripped him of some ornaments and left him to his fate. He was found by one of the fugitives, Rana Khan, a water-carrier, who placed him on his bullock, and took him towards the Deccan. Mahadajee Scindia told General Palmer, the resident at his court, that for a long time he never slept without seeing the Afghan and his clumsy charger pacing after him and his swift Deccany mare. Rana Khan was liberally rewarded for his humanity. He ever after went by the name of the Bhaee, or brother of Mahadajee, rose to high commands, and was loaded with favours.

The return of Ahmed Shah Abdalee and his Afghans to Cabool enabled the Mahrattas to repair the disasters of Paniput, and regain their possessions in Malwah and Hindoostan. Mahadajee Scindia, when Visajee Kishen as commander-in-chief crossed the Nerbudda in 1769, accompanied him at the head of 15,000 horse, and became the chief director of his councils; and it was chiefly at his instigation that the Mahrattas, in concert with Shah Alum’s general, made the incursion into the territories of the Rohilla chief, Zabita Khan, thereby forcing the Rohillas into that treaty with the Nabob of Oude, the alleged violation of which was afterwards made a pretext for attempting to extirpate them. The Mahrattas during this campaign gained almost entire possession of the Doab, and established such a complete ascendency at Delhi, that Shah Alum was truly their prisoner, and attempted in vain to throw off their yoke. In all these transactions Mahadajee took the lead, and extending his territories in every direction, made rapid strides towards independence. When Ragobah engaged in the struggle which ultimately involved the Company in the first Mahratta war, Mahadajee Scindia, as well as Tookajee Holkar, who usually followed in Scindia’s wake, appear to have promised him their support. On this account, these two chiefs were believed not to be indisposed to a separate alliance with the Company. An attempt was accordingly made with that view, but it failed; and Mahadajee Scindia, having made common cause with Nana Furnavese, took an active part in the hostilities which led to the miserable convention of Wurgaom. With him specially was this convention concluded, and as the terms, though most humiliating, were not so rigorous as might have been exacted, his leniency was afterwards gratefully acknowledged and even liberally rewarded. His course had been dictated by sound policy. He was now the avowed rival without being the open enemy of Nana, and had secured the favour of the British, which might yet stand him in good stead. It was probably for this reason that at a later period, when he had obtained the custody of Ragobah’s person, he allowed him to escape in the manner which has been related.

After these apparent approaches to friendship with the Company, another turn of politics induced Mahadajee Scindia actually to take the field against General Goddard in Gujarat. Still, even at this time he professed the greatest friendship for the English, and, as a pledge of it, restored the two English gentlemen who had been left with him as hostages for the fulfilment of the Wurgaoni convention. These professions of friendship, though they led to negotiation, ended in nothing, and hostilities having been renewed, Scindia sustained a defeat not so disastrous as disgraceful, because he had allowed himself to be surprised in his camp. Not long afterwards, the capture of Gwalior by Captain Popham and the invasion of Malwah by Colonel Camac, drove him northwards to defend his own territories. When thus forced to carry on the war at his own expense, he soon tired of it, and, contrary to expectation, entered into the negotiation which, as we have seen, terminated in a general Mahratta peace.

By the above treaty of Salbye, Mahadajee Scindia, besides many other advantages, was left at full liberty to follow his own ambitious schemes. He wrested Gwalior from the hands of the Rana of Gohud, whom the British had left at his mercy, reduced several Rajpoot chiefs, who, after becoming Mahratta tributaries, had thrown off their allegiance, and sent a body of troops to attempt the conquest of Bundelcund. Still higher prospects opened before him when the two leading Mogul factions applied for his interference. At the head of the one was Mahomed Beg, of the other, Afrasiab Khan. As the invitation from the latter was ostensibly from the emperor, Mahadajee Scindia preferred it, and set out for Agra, towards which the imperial court was advancing. Immediately after a meeting had been held, Afrasiab Khan was assassinated. Scindia, from the advantage which he derived from the event, and the asylum he gave to the assassin, did not escape the suspicion of having been privy to the murder. Be this as it may, the result was to vest him with complete authority at Delhi. The office of “ameer-ul-omrah,” or vizier, was offered to him, but declined; in its stead he obtained for the peishwa the office of “vakeel-i-mootluc,” or supreme deputy, and for himself, that of substitute to the peishwa in this new capacity. In this way he was really vested with the whole imperial authority, put in command of the army, and intrusted with the management of the provinces of Delhi and Agra. The position to which he had now attained is thus summed up by Sir John Malcolm:—“He was the nominal slave, but the rigid master of the unfortunate Shah Alum, Emperor of Delhi; the pretended friend, but the designing rival of the house of Holkar; the professed inferior in all matters of form, but the real superior and oppressor of the Rajpoot princes of Central India; and the proclaimed soldier, but the actual plunderer of the family of the peishwa.”

At this time, when Mahadajee Scindia was actual sovereign of Hindoostan from the Sutlej to Agra, possessed two-thirds of Malwah and some of the finest provinces of the Deccan, and had an army composed of sixteen battalions of regular infantry, disciplined by a Frenchman of the name of De Boigne, 100,000 horse, and 500 pieces of cannon, a curious scene of mock humility took place at Poonah. Having arrived here to pay his respects to Madhoo Row the peishwa, Mahadajee Scindia, too modest to enter the city in any kind of state, dismounted from his elephant at the gates, and took his place in the hall of audience below all the hereditary nobles. When the peishwa, on entering, requested them to take their seats, Scindia remained standing. For him to sit would be too much honour. Producing from a bundle which he carried under his arm a pair of slippers, he placed them before the peishwa. “This,” he said, “is my occupation: it was my father’s before me.” There was policy in this grimace. The affected pride of his humble origin made him popular, and it became a common saying, “Mahadajee Scindia made himself a sovereign by calling himself a potail.”

The new honours and conquests of Scindia greatly increased his expenditure, and he had soon to contend with the greatest of all dangers to an Indian potentate—an empty treasury. In his eagerness to replenish it, he did not employ the most judicious means. Under various pretexts, he confiscated the jaghires of many of the Mahometan chiefs, and thus not only provoked their enmity, but spread disaffection among all the others, who were afraid, not without cause, of similar treatment. Another step he took brought matters to a crisis. Using the name of the emperor, he claimed tribute from the Rajpoot chiefs, and by appearing with an army before the gates of Jeypoor, frightened the rajah into payment of a first instalment. More was promised, and had he appeared again with his army, more would have been paid. Instead of this, he sent an agent, and only received a contemptuous refusal. The Rajpoot chiefs had leagued with the disaffected Mahometan nobles and were ripe for revolt. Scindia was taken at a disadvantage. His funds were exhausted, his troops were in arrears, and when about to encounter a formidable insurrection at home, he was obliged to detach a considerable force to repel an incursion of the Sikhs. To complete his difficulties, Ismael Beg, one of his leading Mahometan chiefs, deserted him, on the eve of a great battle with the Rajpoots, and was shortly after followed by the whole of the emperor’s regular infantry, with eighty pieces of cannon. Had the Rajpoots pressed their advantage, they might have freed Hindoostan from Mahratta domination, but, satisfied with driving the invader from their own territories, they left Ismael Beg to contend single-handed for the liberation of those belonging to the emperor. Even then, Scindia was encompassed with difficulties. Ismael Beg, joined by Gholam Kawdir, the son of Zabita Khan, defeated him in a pitched battle. Afterwards, when the tide of fortune had turned against them, they managed to obtain possession of Delhi, in June, 1788. Shah Alum, in endeavouring to maintain the citadel against them, became their prisoner, and was deprived of eyesight by the hands of the merciless Gholam Kawdir. This atrocity did not long remain unpunished. The perpetrator, after being driven from Delhi, was captured, and subjected to a dreadful mutilation which he did not survive, and the unhappy Shah Alum, now a blind old man, and once more in the hands of Scindia, was re-seated on his throne.

At the time when Lord Cornwallis concluded the treaty of alliance with the Nizam and the Mahrattas, Scindia offered to become a party to it, and march against Tippoo, provided the British would furnish him with two battalions similar to those granted to Nizam Ali, and engage moreover to protect his possessions in Hindoostan during his absence. The rejection of these proposals gave him deep offence, and he henceforward showed himself decidedly hostile to British interests. It was partly with the view of being able to damage them more effectually, that in 1792 he quitted Hindoostan to pay a visit to Poonah, but his ostensible object was different. Shah Alum had been made to grant new patents, not only confirming the offices of vakeel-i-mootluc to the peishwa, and of deputy to Scindia, but declaring both offices hereditary and perpetual, and Scindia, in setting out for Poonah, gave out that he was proceeding thither by the emperor’s orders, with the sunnuds and insignia, for the purpose of seeing the peishwa regularly installed. Nana Furnavese made many objections to the proposed ceremony, and endeavoured to convince the peishwa that he could not accept of the titles and insignia without violating the Mahratta constitution. His arguments were unavailing, and a day was fixed for the formal investiture. The following description of it is given by Duff:

“Scindia spared no pains to make it as imposing as possible. A grand suite of tents was pitched at a distance from his own camp. They proceeded towards them with the most pompous form. At the further end of these splendid apartments, a throne, meant to represent that of the Moguls, was erected, on which was displayed the imperial firman, the khillut or dresses of investiture, and all the principal insignia. The peishwa on approaching the throne made his obeisance thrice, placed 101 gold mohurs upon it, as a nuzur or offering, and took his seat on its left. Scindia’s Persian secretary then read the imperial firmans, and amongst others the edict which prevented the slaughter of bullocks and cows. The peishwa then received the khillut, consisting of nine articles of dress, five superb ornaments of jewels and feathers, a sword and shield, a pencase, a seal and inkstand, and two royal morchuls or fans of peacocks’ tails, accompanied by a nalkee (a sort of sedan-chair without a top), a palkee (a sort of short bedstead), a horse, and an elephant; besides six elephants bearing the imperial standard, two crescents, two stars, and the orders of the Fish and the Sun. The peishwa retired to an adjoining tent and returned clothed in the imperial khillut, when he resumed his seat; and Scindia, followed by Nana Furnavese and such of the peishwa’s officers as were present, offered nuzurs of congratulation. When the peishwa arose to return to his palace, he was followed by Scindia and Hurry Punt, carrying the morchuls and fanning him. He entered Poonah seated on the nalkee; the concourse of people assembled to witness the procession was exceedingly great; the pomp and grandeur displayed was beyond anything that the inhabitants of Poonah had ever seen, whilst the clang of thousands of musical instruments, the shout of the populace, volleys of musketry, and salvos of cannon, seemed to give all the effect that the projector of this state ceremony could possibly desire.

The investiture of Scindia as hereditary deputy took place on the arrival at the peishwa’s palace. It was a very tame affair, both because his affected modesty would not allow it to be pompous, and because intimations were not wanting to show how much his ultimate designs were suspected and disrelieved. He saw the necessity of acting with the utmost caution, and made it his first business to establish himself in the young peishwa’s good graces. He had brought as presents to him many of the rare productions and curiosities of Hindoostan, and he soon rendered himself so agreeable to him by his frank unreserved manners, that he became his constant companion. He talked to him of hunting and hawking, carried him out on frequent excursions to these sports, and made parties of pleasure for his amusement. Madhoo Row was delighted with a behaviour so different from the grave decorum habitual to the Nana, and began gradually to give part of his confidence to Scindia. Business thus occasionally became the subject of conversation, and plans of policy were unfolded. If Holkar and any other Mahratta chiefs who interfered with his management were withdrawn, he would make all Hindoostan a secure possession to the peishwa. The English were the only enemies to be feared, and the accession of strength which they had gained in the late war by the aid of the Mahrattas was much to be lamented. The weakening of Tippoo was a political blunder, and it would therefore be advisable in future to form a closer connection with him. Such was the kind of policy which Scindia was understood to be inculcating, when all his schemes were suddenly cut short by a sudden death.

Both from the suddenness of the event, and the state of parties at the time, it might have been expected that great changes would follow. Mahadajee Scindia left no male issue. He had a full brother, Tookajee Scindia, who fell at Paniput, and left three sons. The eldest of them had no sons; the other two had, and Scindia, without paying any regard to the legal order of succession, had repeatedly declared his intention to adopt Dowlut Row, the son of his youngest nephew. Though the adoption had not actually taken place, effect was given to the intention. Dowlut Row, then only a youth of fifteen years of age, was accordingly, after some slight opposition on the part of Mahadajee’s widow, recognized as his heir, and entered into peaceable possession of his immense territories. The policy which he began to pursue was exactly that which his grand-uncle had advocated, and thus the question of interference on behalf of the Nizam, which Marquis Cornwallis had left open, Sir John Shore was compelled to answer. The case contemplated by the treaty between the confederates, but left for future arrangement, was about to be realized. Tippoo was believed to have collected an army for the express purpose of attacking the Nizam. Had this been all, there could not have been any room for discussion, as assistance could not have been refused without a violation both of the letter and the spirit of the treaty; but the peculiarity of the case was, that in the contemplated aggression, Tippoo could scarcely be considered as a principal. He was to be the auxiliary of another party, and that party was one of the confederates. Under these circumstances, Sir John Shore decided that no obligation would lie upon the British to interfere. In a long and able minute in support of this decision, he maintains, “That as the union of the three allies was the basis of the treaty, the continuance of that union or friendship is essential to the performance of the obligations imposed by it, and a war between two of the parties totally changes the relative situation of all.” As a necessary conclusion from these premises, he held that the British were under no obligation to interfere in any of the three following cases:—a war between the Nizam and the Mahrattas alone; a war between the Nizam and the Mahrattas assisted by Tippoo; and an unprovoked attack by Tippoo on the Nizam, while the Nizam and the Mahrattas were at war. The last of these three cases is the most ticklish of all, and it is very questionable whether Sir John Shore, in attempting to justify his decision respecting it, has not evaded a real obligation, by having recourse to a species of jesuitical casuistry. He argues thus:—“To support the Nizam against Tippoo, if he should seize the opportunity of actual hostility between his highness and the Mahrattas, to attack the territories of the former without provocation, must necessarily involve us in a war with the Mahrattas, a predicament which the obligations of the treaty never supposed. I state this as a necessary consequence, for the operations of the field would lead to it: even though the invasion were not originally concerted or intended between Tippoo and the peishwa, we cannot conceive it possible for us to fight against Tippoo alone, in defence of the Nizam, and with the co-operation of his forces, whilst he is engaged with the Mahrattas; and to prosecute the war with effect against Tippoo, we must commence hostilities at the same time with the Mahrattas. But if a contrary supposition were admissible, the whole burden of repelling and punishing the aggression of Tippoo would exclusively fall upon us, contrary to the spirit, meaning, and terms of the triple alliance.” The argument is in substance simply this:—Both the British and the Mahrattas are bound to punish Tippoo should he attack or molest the Nizam; but should the Mahrattas choose to violate this obligation, the British will hold themselves entitled to violate it also, because to do otherwise would be very inconvenient. Inasmuch as it might lead to a new Mahratta war, and even if it did not, would throw upon the British the whole, instead of only a share, of the burden of punishing Tippoo.