CHAPTER XVI
THE ARMY IN INDIA: (c) THE ARMY OF THE QUEEN-EMPRESS—1858–96
After the great Mutiny, the disturbed districts soon settled down to their normal calm. Discontent, if still existing, was concealed with Asiatic astuteness. The justice of our rule was evident, even if antagonistic to natural prejudices and antipathies. The extension of railways rendered rapid concentration of troops more possible, and the great increase in the permanent establishment of European troops soon impressed the native mind with the futility, for the time at least, of any further effort to upset the British rule.
The danger to which India was to be exposed for the future was more external than internal, more political than domestic. The natural extension of the Empire had brought it into intimate connection with semi-savage peoples on the one hand, and, what was of more serious importance, had, through the rapid absorption by Russia of the Central Asian khanates, brought the frontiers of two mighty Empires within striking distance. Hence the military history of India since the Mutiny is composed of small punitive expeditions against the mountain tribes of the Himmaleyehs and Hindu Koosh, or political campaigns such as that in Afghanistan.
Many of the former are too unimportant to mention, and reference will therefore be confined to those for which medals or clasps have been given, or whose names are borne upon the colours. But all spring from the same source. It is the contest, as old as the hills themselves, between the people of the mountains and those of the plain. To the former, rapine and plunder is a profitable pastime, and war an agreeable change. Like the Scottish Highlander of the time of “Roderick Dhu,” who looked on the Saxon or Lowlander as justifiable prey, and to whom to “spoil the Egyptians” was not merely right, but laudable, so all hill-tribe peoples feel with regard to the Lowlanders. Their own land provides little even of bare necessaries, still less of common luxuries. In many cases their condition necessitates, in their eyes, raids for slaves or wives; in all they know they will long enjoy comparative immunity from unpleasant consequences, provided their hostile acts are not too pronounced. They are aware, as are the military police and the government of the more peaceful districts, that to punish minor acts of theft is a costly, though rarely a dangerous, proceeding. Emboldened by immunity, and forgetful of past punishment, they grow bolder and bolder, until at length the patience of the other side is exhausted, and a second or a third punitive expedition is despatched. Even when, after such a one, superficial peace is established, the presence of foreign Residents, to see that that peace is kept, is often a constant source of danger. Some patriot more zealous or hyper-sensitive to the presence of the foreigner—all the more if he be a “Feringhi”—than the rest resents this apparent vassalage, and carries his resentment to its natural end with people whose fighting instincts are still strong. The early history of all dominant military nations or clans is the same. When they are fully subdued, they become as valuable servants and coadjutors in the principle of keeping order and the peace, as they were before hostile to both.
Where are there better soldiers than the Highland Scotch? and yet for generations they were deadly hostile to those with whom they now work with absolute cordiality. So with the Sikh and Beloochee. They furnish some of the best and most reliable of the native regiments.
Hence it is that frontier wars in India are, and will be, matters of common occurrence, until the peoples see the error of their ways, and learn that resistance and robbery, for it is little else, do not pay.
There is yet another reason why these wars must long continue to be inevitable. Semi-civilised man with arms in his hand (and all such tribes rejoice in having arms) are not content with looking at them. They desire to use them, and therefore do. Doubtless often enough it is a case of cherchez la femme, and it would be strange indeed if in some cases the male had not been egged on by ambition, or the desire for something which a raid would give her, by his feminine belongings. Barbaric woman thinks little of a peace-loving man. She likes the man none the less, but all the more, because he is strong in battle, and fearless when danger comes.
Frontier wars, however, are at anyrate a valuable training-school for our army, and give, in piping times of general peace, the only practical experience of how often death, and at all times difficulties, may be met and overcome. The first of these after the Mutiny was that of Sikkim, a district north of Darjeeling. There had often been friction before, and the turbulence of some of the tribes led to the “temporary occupation” of a portion of the Rajah of Sikkim’s territory. The natural consequences followed. The detachment was after a while driven out. Of course, too, there was the necessity to punish the “unjustifiable action,” and there was also the political effect such a minor reverse might have on the neighbouring populations.