With the Connaught Rangers

by Edward Herbert Maxwell

His performances seemed to give unfailing delight to the inhabitants of Huttie, who looked on as though they had not seen him go through the same feats every day of the season. Of course the Tomasha Walla’s re-appearance on the scene was followed by a demand for ‘backsheesh.’ Have not all travellers in the East written folios on the subject of backsheesh? I must add my iota to the budget. It is the most irritating of demands. Not a man in Cashmere will ever accept the payment that is offered to him, no matter that it is twice as much as the service he has done requires. He will whine and beg for more, going through a string of reasons why he should get it. At last, having either succeeded in obtaining an increase of pay, or else seeing he has no chance of prevailing, he begins a fresh clamour for backsheesh. I grieve to say that our experience of the inhabitants of Cashmere proved them to be thoroughly false, utterly ungrateful, and desperately extortionate. Honour and honesty they have none. Find them out in some lie or fraud, they grin from ear to ear, never dreaming of being ashamed of themselves.

Ground down as they are by the system of perpetual oppression, we ceased to wonder at the lowness of their morals as we saw more of the working of the rule they live under. No nation in the world is taxed as the Cashmerians are (or were, for I write of 1868). Two thirds of everything is taxed for the benefit of the Maharajah, and to see that this is duly paid a host of officials are employed, who in their turn rob the unfortunate ratepayers, till (I am within the mark) I have been assured by those who ought to know that three-fourths of every man’s possessions are yearly taken from him in this grievously burdened land. It was very long before we understood the small enthusiasm shown when we congratulated the people on their smiling crops and fair prospect of a heavy harvest. What matters it to them whether the produce be good or bad?—enough will be left them for their subsistence, and more for seed for next year’s sowing. But all the rest finds its way, much lightened by the hands it passes through, to the Maharajah’s coffers. Our farmers at home grumble, but they live in a free country—let them be thankful.

The Cashmerian sows his land, a government official comes down on his inspection visit, and desires that each field should produce so many maunds of grain. In vain the farmer protests that his land cannot yield such a crop; he is not listened to, and woe to him if to the last seer the number of maunds be not forthcoming. He is sold out—everything he has is taken from him to pay his debt to the Maharajah.

We saw this beautiful and fatherly care of a prince for his people in full form in the Lolab Valley. We were riding past a village along a narrow path; it was getting dusk, and we had to leave our road because four or five men who were sitting down did not get out of the way. It was an unusual rudeness. Next morning we passed the same way, and there were the men still on the ground. No wonder they had not moved, even for a sahib, for their legs were bound fast and firm in stocks, there to remain till it was the Maharajah’s good pleasure to release them. All that they could call their own had been sold to pay for deficient crops, but much more was still marked against them.

‘Cashmere was conquered in A.D. 1587 by Akbar’s brother-in-law, the Rajah of Jeypore, when the Mahomedan king of that province was enrolled among the nobles of the court; and this lovely valley, the paradise of Asia, became the summer retreat of the emperors of Delhi.’—History of India, by John Clark Marsham, vol. i. ‘It was conquered by Runjeet Sing in 1819.’—Ibid. vol. iii.

‘In 1846, the Sikh army having invaded our territory, Sir Henry Harding issued a proclamation confiscating the Cis Sutlege possessions of the Lahore crown, and he annexed the Jullunder Doab, or district lying between the Sutlege and the Beeas, to the Company’s dominions, by which he obtained security for our hill stations, and a position which gave us control of the Sikh capital (Lahore). The expenses of the campaign were computed at a crore and a half of rupees—which the Lahore state was required to make good—but the profligacy of the ministers and the rapacity of the soldiers had exhausted the treasury, and, of the twelve crores Runjeet Sing left in it, there remained scarcely fifty lacs of rupees to meet the demand. Sir Henry therefore determined to take over the province of Cashmere and the highlands of Jummoo in lieu of the remaining crore. Since the death of Runjeet Sing, the powerful Raja of Jummoo, Golab Sing, had always cherished the hope of being able, by some happy turn of circumstances, to convert his principality into an independent sovereignty. During the recent contest he had played the part of an interested neutral, watching the contest, and prepared to side with the strongest. When called to assume the office of minister at Lahore, he negotiated with the Governor-General as much for his own interests as for those of the State. There could be little doubt that a clear understanding regarding the possession existed between him and the British Government; and hence it created no surprise when he stepped forward and offered to pay down the crore of rupees, on condition of being constituted the independent Raja of Cashmere and Jummoo. The sovereignty of these provinces was accordingly sold to him, but it must not be forgotten that he received only an indefeasible title to that which he actually possessed at the time. Sir Henry Hardinge by this stroke of policy obtained funds to cover the expenses of the war.’[2]—History of India, vol. iii.

CHAPTER IX.
THE VALE OF CASHMERE.

MEDICAL SCIENCE IN CASHMERE—LONG AND FATIGUING MARCH—CHIKOTI—FORT OF OREE—FAQUEERS—BRIDGE OF ROPES—AN OLD FRIEND—PLAYFUL MONKEYS—TEMPLE OF BHUMNIAR—PRIMITIVE FISHING—BARRAMULA PASS—THE HAPPY VALLEY AT LAST—FORMATION OF THE VALE OF CASHMERE—CHANGE IN MODE OF TRAVELLING—DONGAHS—HERONS—THE WALLOOR LAKE—FORT OF SRINAGUR—PUG AND THE AFGHAN WARRIOR—THE MURDERER OF LORD MAYO.

CHAPTER IX.

The heat was very great at Huttie, for we were in a hollow, where no breeze seemed to reach us, and the mosquitoes were more annoying than usual. I do not know what we should have done in the event of illness. We had no medicine to speak of but quinine, which we found very useful, for the servants constantly had fever, and the faith they had in the mysterious white powder was implicit. Villagers and coolies used to come to us to beg for a little, and we had to harden our hearts, and give to those only who required it.