Mahmood Farooqui’s impressive account of the effects of the 1857 uprising against the ruling British in India, Besieged , is true to its sub-title, ‘Voices From Delhi 1857’. It is about the privations and humiliations that the citizens of this once beautiful city had to face, during the five-month siege of the city — from August to September — by the British-led troops of the East India Company, a vast majority of whom were Indian, both Hindu and Sikh, against the Forces of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the 82-year old last emperor of Mughal India, supported by the Marathas and a couple of regiments of Sikhs as well.
Farooqui has accessed documents from the archives that reveal the abject state of the city of Delhi; the complete breakdown of law and order with anarchic elements running amok causing untold hardships to the lay citizen, Hindu, Jain and Muslim alike. The Mughal empire founded by Babar in 1526 sustained itself till 1707 when Aurangzeb, the last emperor, died. He was a competent though ruthless administrator, unfortunately influenced by the clerics. Aurangzeb’s inflexible attitude did antagonise the loyal Hindu citizenry, and his successors over the next 100 years, unconcerned about the affairs of the state, gave free rein to debauchery and high living, albeit in a secular environment.
By the time Bahadur Shah ascended the throne, the Mughal empire had been bled white by marauders from outside, like Nadir Shah from Persia and, later, the Rohillas of Afghanistan. It was said of Shah Alam II, Bahadur Shah Zafar’s predecessor, that his writ ran from Delhi to neighbouring Palam, about 25 km from Red Fort, then the heart of the city! Farooqui paints in pitiless detail the impending doom that was to overtake the city and its citizens so quickly through summer.
The volume has a preface by the author followed by an eclectic selection of documents involving the everyday activities of citizens and how they were affected by the administration of Delhi being thwarted, indeed subverted by both civil and military elements from within. The state of the city is best underlined by the chapter entitled ‘Dateline’. The mood of the native citizen can be gauged by this entry for May 12: Frances Taylor, principal of Delhi College, beaten to death in the street(s). Bahadur Shah Zafar tours the city on an elephant urging shops to remain open. The entry for May 15, confirms the anarchy at hand: Plundering of the magazine. Delhi aristocrats raise private police force, but this fails to stop the plunder. Princes given ranks and made in charge of the military.
The next day sees the massacre of the European prisoners at Red Fort. On May 17, the newspaper, Dehli Urdu Akhbar reports of sepoys occupying the Red Fort and giving it a cantonment-like look. The Emperor’s son Mirza Abu Bakr, is dispatched to Meerut, 60km away, to fetch cannons. Fortification of the city is underway. The entry for May 21 promises some kind of restoration of order: Proclamation that anyone found plundering will be shot. Shops begin to reopen. City bankers raise one lakh rupees to pay the sepoys.
There is still some hope at this point of beating the British-led army.
But the month of June brings gloom in its wake, confirmed by the following entries: 1 June: Fear in the city. Shops closed. Frantic building of entrenchments by Mirza Mughal, the C-in-C. 8 June: Battle of Badli-ki-Serai. Rebels defeated. British occupy the ridge.
Beginning of the siege of Delhi. 16 June: Sweepers directed to remove garbage and carcasses from the city gates. 19 June: Residents of Hauz Qazi clash with soldiers. A resident of Kucha Brijnath, Shankar Nath’s daughter, arrested by a Nawab who wants to marry her. 24 June : Soldiers pillage the royal ice factory. Chandni Chowk residents complain about corrupt thanadar. 30 June: Prostitute Sundar uses soldiers to evict her tenant.
July brings its share of desolation and drollery. On 3 July: A Punjabi tailor confronts barquandaz at Chandni Chowk and releases conscripted labourers. 5 July: Bakht Khan designated governor-general. Prince Abu Bakr creates a ruckus at Tiraha Bairam Khan in a drunken state. 14 July: The house of Khurshid Alam, a Mughal prince, plundered by soldiers. 31 July: Vaziran, the courtesan, freed from jail by her Tilanga admirers. Kotwal professes helplessness.
British forces over the next two months slowly but steadily overcome a starving city and the soldiers defending it with dwindling military means. Farooqui’s ‘multiple-perspective’ approach gives a vivid picture of both a city and a way of life crumbling before a superior army, which is also, however inadvertently, bringing with it an approach to life that is new and filled with challenges of the as yet unknown.
— parthafm@gmail.com