An Imperial Crisis in British India: The Manipur Uprising of 1891 by Caroline Keen

Author:Caroline Keen [Keen, Caroline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Imperialism, India & South Asia, Political Science, Asia, History
ISBN: 9781784531034
Google: oXZrxAEACAAJ
Goodreads: 26491745
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Published: 2015-07-03T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

THE THREE COLUMNS

The first news of the difficulties experienced in arresting the Senapati reached the Viceroy in the North-Western Provinces very late on the evening of 29 March. Lansdowne immediately interrupted his tour and returned to Simla, where his council was assembled with some speed. From the north, south and west troops were ordered to advance on Manipur – at first with the hope of saving the prisoners, and later in greater strength to take the city.

As soon as rumours of the disaster reached Kohima, the Political Agent at the station, A. W. Davis, collected 150 military police and marched towards the Manipur border. By 30 March they had covered the 40 miles to Mao and, after a brief skirmish with Manipuri defenders, occupied a well-fortified stockade and awaited reinforcements. Davis despatched a messenger to the Regent, demanding details of the anti-British activity. He then returned to his post in Kohima. The response from the Manipur palace purported to be a copy of a telegram sent on 25 March from the Regent to the Viceroy, Lord Lansdowne, setting out details of the abortive durbar at the residency at which the Regent was treated with such disrespect. The letter claimed that the British had later attacked the palace without warning, whereupon the Manipuri soldiers in the Senapati's compound were compelled to fire in self-defence. However there was no mention of the truce or the night durbar in the palace, and the impression was that the British officers had been killed in the general hostilities. In the final sentences the Regent took pains to convey his personal innocence:

I regret very much the sad occurrence. All Her Majesty's employes [sic], troops, and subjects surviving are well cared for. I took no aggressive part … This disaster has happened only on rash ill-advised acts on the part of officers concerned. It is not known to my policy. Such barbarous acts have been committed, and I think my subjects were justified to fight for the cause of their religion, wives and children.1

However the Regent's insistence upon his personal lack of support for the violent response of his subjects appeared questionable when it was ascertained that two days after the attack on the residency there had been a ‘General Thanksgiving’, followed by a great procession through the city as Manipur was proclaimed free and victorious over its enemies.2

Babu Rassick Lal Kundu, the head clerk of the Manipur Political Agency, was taken prisoner in the palace. In a letter that he was ordered to write to the Assam authorities the clerk, no doubt to save his own skin, stressed the conciliatory tone which had been adopted by the princes. He reported:

It was during the night of the 24th that all Bengali Babus and all British subjects with our families having left the town sought shelter in the interior, and during the next day we were gradually brought into the Palace as captives. We found about 200 sepoys, followers and servants kept under chain there in the

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