India and Indian Engineering. / Three lectures delivered at the Royal Engineer Institute, Chatham, in July 1872

by J. G. Medley

You will observe that I have said nothing about military engineering works except barracks; in fact, there is very little work of that kind in India. Like the Romans of old, we encamp our troops in open cantonments instead of shutting them up in forts, and what forts there are in the country, for the magazines and arsenals, are almost all old native forts. Of harbour defence works we have scarcely any, for the simple reason that there are scarcely any harbours, except at Bombay, where the subject has recently had much attention directed to it. Whatever military engineering work is required is therefore done as a civil work by the Public Works Department, and all Royal Engineer officers virtually work as civilians, except in the event of war, when those required are at once ordered off to join the army; and though doubtless an officer’s knowledge of military details may be considerably weakened by his long absence from military duty in civil employment, yet the very nature of that employment engenders a quickness and fertility of resource and a sense of responsibility which go far to compensate for that deficiency, and the men who blew in the Cashmere Gate at Delhi, and laid out the defences of the Lucknow Residency, at any rate found their knowledge of military engineering sufficient for the purpose.

What I have already said as to the importance of the work entrusted to every young Government civilian in India applies almost as much to the young Engineer. He will find himself almost immediately entrusted with responsibility, and, before long, in charge of work that he could not expect to have confided to him in England until many years of service had rolled over his head. But with work and responsibility of this nature, he will find great interest and no small anxiety; he will have to look after or do nearly everything himself, without the aid of clever contractors, skilled clerks of the works, and intelligent foremen; he will probably have to train his own subordinates, to work with very inefficient plant, and to trust to his own resources every day, and under circumstances calculated to try his mother-wit, his common sense, and clear-headedness, above all, his patience and temper, in a way he never calculated on. No sort of knowledge will come amiss to him; he may even have to be his own doctor, and to physic his whole establishment, or to commence work by turning wholesale provision merchant in order to supply his workmen in some barren district.

Indeed, the work of an Engineer officer in India, as in England, is of a very miscellaneous description, and I think it is no light subject of pride to the whole corps that there is such a variety of talent amongst our brother officers. In India, when I left the country, besides Lord Napier, whose reputation belongs to the empire, we had the ablest Lieutenant Governor in the late Sir H. Durand, who began his career by blowing in the gates of Ghuznee. One of our officers is Director of Indian Telegraphs another superintends the Great Trigonometrical Survey, perhaps the greatest and most scientific survey ever yet achieved; another is head of the Calcutta Mint; others were amongst the ablest civil commissioners of the country; the astronomical observations of another in connection with the last two eclipses have been of the highest value to science; another has just received the founder’s gold medal from the Royal Geographical Society for his works on antiquarian geography; another has perished a martyr to science amongst the deserts of Thibet; another has established a reputation as the best accountant in India, and has since written the most famous pamphlet of the age.

To complete my account of the Public Work agency, I must very briefly refer to some of the financial aspects of the Department, which concern the engineer. How is the money found for the various works of the country? In this way:—

At the beginning of the financial year, the financial department of the Government of India allots to each local government the several sums that are authorized to be expended during the coming year, for the several works that may have been sanctioned under the various heads of irrigation, railways, roads, barracks, &c. These sums, thus provided in the Public Works Budget, are allotted after due consideration of the various budget estimates that have previously been submitted by the chief engineers of the local governments, and they are not allowed to be exceeded. For this, the superintending and executive engineers are held responsible, and they must “cut their coat according to their cloth,” i.e. arrange for the coming year’s work according to the amount of money they are authorized to expend.

Every work is estimated for previous to sanction by the executive engineer, and the estimate, after being checked by the superintending engineer, is forwarded to his chief for sanction, who, if he approve the design and estimate, recommends it for sanction by the local government, or, in case of a large work, forwards it on to the supreme government with his own remarks. If not satisfied with it, he may return it for revision or explanation.

When a work is sanctioned and ordered to be commenced, the money being also forthcoming for it in the budget, the executive engineer goes to work. In the large presidency towns, and a few of the more important stations, he may get the work executed by contract; but, as a general rule, he will have to be content with procuring his materials by contract, and perhaps getting his earthwork done in this manner. For the rest, he will have to employ daily paid labourers, and occasionally may have to import labourers from other districts, to organize them into gangs, provide them with tools, and arrange for their food, water, and temporary shelter. For this he has the assistance of his European overseers, native sub-overseers, and mistrees or head-artificers, and as you will have to deal largely with these men, it may be as well if I say a few words about them.

The European Overseers are nearly all non-commissioned officers or privates who have volunteered from the various regiments in India for the Public Works Department, and have been trained at the Roorkee College. They are allowed to wear plain clothes, and are of course struck off all military duty. As a rule, they are hard-working, intelligent men, and many of them are most valuable subordinates, but they are generally deficient in practical knowledge, are not very conversant with the language, and are but too often given to drink.

The native Sub-Overseers have also been trained at Roorkee, and are generally good draftsmen, surveyors, and estimators, but they are drawn from the trading instead of the working classes, have no practical experience, and lack physical stamina.