The Sun.
London, England, 1807-05-15 00:00:00

MUTINY AT VELLORE

•
[As so much has been said upon/this melancholy event, and
as the result of the Inquiry• has not been officially pro_
mulged in this-Country, we think it proper to present the
following Statement to our Readers, not doubting that they
will suspend their judgment till the whole matter is laid
before them.)

Certain dbeuments of the first authenticity, re-,
cently received from India, which have fallen into
onr hands, have enabled us.to-place the condu& of
Gen.. CRADDOCK, at Vellore, in a fuller point of
light than any in which it-has yet been exhibited ;
and to give a precise &termination to the question—
Whether the melancholy events which took place
thereiiare to be attributed :to erroneous judgment,
or other misconduct, on his part ?
. First; let us state the accusation brought against
himboth here and in India ; and- this onght. to ..be
done in terms robbing it 'of no_ part of its force.—
To insult the- religious principles of the multitude---,
to attempt, by force, to make them desert from reli-
gious observances: -transmitted to them from. a re-
mote antiquity—always leads to revolts; and revolts
which have overturned the best established Govern-
meets. But :what must be expe&ed When these
rash and culpable innovations are attempted on a
great part of an army? It was thus,that by some,
trifling innovations, of no real militaryconsequence,
endeawyared to be intreduced among he. Company's
Sepoys, at Vellore, Gen. CRAI,Dotk otitraged the
religious principles of _those troops:. as hell as of
those in different quarters, and provoked that formi--
dable mdtiry which broke out on- the tBth of July
last, in which great part, of the:garrison wezte 'mur-
dered; and the whole narrowly escapedeKtermin&-
tion ; that important fortress was nearly lost; and
the Son of Tiproo set free., to attempt to recover.
the power of his father, .not without probability of
success, as the spirit of revolt, already-by this fatal
,attempt much extended among the Company's Na-
tive Troops, would by that event have been spread
from one extremity of India to the other.
By ,the regulations so attempted to be introduce&
no Sepoy was to be permitted to appear on regi-
mental parades, or duty, with large ear-rings, or the
marks of his Cast; and they were all ordered to
wear a particular turban at such times. •
In answer, therefore, to the accusation stated
above-74hat this was 'an attempt to violate their
established religious- principles-,--on which the whole
charge against-General CRADDOCK rests, it will' be
shewn, on the most -indisputable authorities, that
laying aside the rings, and the marks, of Cast, on
such occasions, , was not .in the least repugnant to
the religious customs of the Hindoos ; that the or-
der was contained among the regulations .of .the
mast ancient and best-disciplined Native Corps in
the service, .and by them complied with for many
years without objedion ; and that the Native In-
dians have neither tradition or, ordinance forbidding
the use of the turban to theM ; and thatthe wearing
it is not a violation of any custom or tradition
esteemed by them of obligation. • • -
The .-retaining. the marks of Cast on duty, it is
contended by military -Men, is repugnant to every
idea of military subordination : in our Native Regi-
ments 'men of,all Casts. are indiscriminately mixed
in all stations rand the Parisak or the Chuckler,
men of the lowest Casts, will command the Syed
or the Rajapoot in the ranks ; but 'distinguished by
the marks of. Cast, " such a private would not suf.,
fer, such a Commanding Officer to be seated in his
presence (a) ;" nor would the latter so far forget hiS
inferiority as to presume' so to. do. But it is not on
military necessity that- the defence of the Regula-
tions can in this instance be legitimately founded ;
.ue therefore go on to state, that in that great terri-
tory where the Braminical religion continues to this
day predominant-Where its professors have notlaid
aside any of its essential. pradices, induced or over-
awed by superior powers ;—in the Mahratta States
the ." soldiers have been prevailed on to abandon
the more injurious effects of Cast (b)." But to
cotne to our own Native Troops : " Many of our
corps at Madras, almost all those of Bengal, which.
are composed of Hindoos of the higher. Cast, never
use their distinguishing marks. on duty (c) ;" and
the Hindoo Officers; tong before the issuing of the
Regulations, cordially set themselves to the suppres-
sion of it : in many instances, " of their own accord,
chastising the Sepoys for appearing in the ranks so
distinguished
.(d) :"—" Nor is it a crime in a Hindoo'
being without a mark fbr any number of days (e),"'
It is thus fully shewn, that there was nothing in
the Regulations concerning their marks of Cast, or
large ear-rings, contrary-. to the received religious
principles of the Native Troops. It -is now to he
proved, that the ad of the General was only en-
forcing, .by an universal Order, what had before be-
come the general,, if not universal,' pradice of all
the corps of Native Troops in the Cbmpany's service.
Colonel AGNEW, the Adjutant-Getieral, when reply •
ing to the charge—that it is a modern innovation
---
considers it so ancient that its precise origin 'cannot
be traced ; and atlirms of it only, that it is " what
custom, if not remote regulation, had long' esta-
blished (f)." But from the authentic papers before
us, we believe ourselves able to speak with a little
more precision on the subjeCt. We ascribe it to
Col. EDINGTON; then one of the best Officers in the
Company's service; who, " in the year 1777,"
" prohibited the wearing of ear-rings, when on duty,
or marks of Cast: it was complied with without.a
word, as it was no degradation to the Sepoys with
respell to those Casts." Lieut.-Col. CHAL.MERS,
who then served Under him, gives this account of
the matter.
.(g) 5 and he, adds, that since that period
the prohibition . has been so 'generally , obeyed, that
in seven corps of Bepoys, in which he had since
served (and in two of "them as Adjutant), lie never
witnessed. an infraClion,of it (10 . In a word, in the
obliteration of these marks we either followed, or
were followed by, the HinclOos' of the Maltratta Etn-
j)ire : if we followed them, we'followed Braminical
authority ; if we preceded theni, the principle On
which the Order stands, that the' pradice affeds.on
religious pollution, and is not hostile to the laws and
customs of Cast, was acceded to and ratified by the

(a) Memoir of a General Officer (MS.) oa. r, 1806.
(64 Major Stnith,,%of the Mahratta service.
(r) CapNin Sydenlisiin, resident at Hyderabad.
(d) Major-Gen. Dogald Campbell. Letter, Sept. 13. ‘306.
(e) Lieut.-Colonel Chalmers. Letter, Aug. 23, :Soo. -
(j) Adjutant-Gen. Cot. Agnew to Sir 1.-C. July 18,
.1806.
(g) Letter from Lieut.-Colonel Chalmers, Aug. zS, taaei.
(6) I bid. •

•13camins, when they permitted its adoptidn in that
bruit territory where alone their Institutes are pre-
clominatvt, the sbvereigtity remaining in the native
.

In the East Indies, indeed, some persons who had
not yet had an opportunity cif becoming acquainted
with these faCts, expressed an opinion that the order'
complained of might be an innovation, 'and their fears
from it : we shall have hereafter to shew,_that this
apprehension excited the greatest degree of cau-
tion in a person, in whom to err was to bring
every thing to the hazard 'but in Europe, charges
against the. General, of wantonly 'violating religious
prineiples, were more decidedly brought, and all the
censures of such a measure, which we have above
Mentioned, were brought against ,his conduca.. An
accusation of tyrannical. impolicy, seemingly confirm,
ed by events, capable of a higher colouring, could.
not well exist. Yet mutt it share the fate of many
a well sounding charge which has gone before it if
it'could be brought forward, indeed, consistent. with
'the history of the event it is set up to account
many are the
,fine specimens of eloquence it might
furnish and, as admirers •of every produCtion of
great and commanding genius, we lament the lass of
'the fine examples of the awful sublimity of the.elo-
quence ofindignant vindi6tiVe justice, worthy of the
Phillippics of him of Greece, or him of Rome; which
this little defect of foundation <in the charge must, in-
fallibly oeca§ion

But there is further evidence of the first authenti-
city on this subject ; its introduElion engaged, as it
ought to have 'thine, the attention of our. Government
In India as:soon as it became believed that objeatons
wete entertained against it ; atad,, by _public instru-
ment, -they' declared:, that it " appeared, after the
•stridest inquiry, and according to the testimony of
,Nativesof the highesteast, that the opposition which
had been experienced in the late change of turbans,
is destitute of any foundation either in the law or
usage of the MahQmedan or Gentoo reljgionl (i)."
-After the tingical event at Vellore, the General Order
to adopt the new turban was repealed ;. bfAt
many reginients since the repeal have petitioned -for-
leave to wear it(k)."

How-so slight a circtunStance as the change of the
form of the turbans of those troops-should have any.
tendency to produce a conspiracy of so wide an ex-
tent, and for a time seeming to menace our Esta-
blishmeat in India itself, certainly is not obvious, nor
do the Papers We follow, however full on other
points, furnish any direct explanation of it. We shall
notwithstanding, endeavour to state what seems most
probable to us on this point; frOrrt certain intima-
tions contained in them ; and there is. frequently
circumstantial evidence of facts, giving them adequate
suppOrt where dire& testimony is wanted : and of.
such proofs cur profoundest historians have beeri.ihk
freeest„in the use, and the most decided in their de-
clarations of 'their conclusiveness. ‘,"fhe turbans
formerly worn by the- Native Troops is in nothing
like a real turban, and may-be called a hat with'as
much propriety as the objected one(/)." Here we
see they -were incensed against the new turban by
the denominatibn of a hat having been given to it.—
The hat'and the 'turban (the Christian and the Ma-
homedan Powers) had been for more than half an
agecontesting-for the supremacy in India ; .aud they
are become the eternal badges of the two religions ;
and the order to oblige the Hindoo Troops to weir
what the name of a hat was given to, was represent-
ed to them, by a set of emissaries hereafter to be
spoken of, as the fore-runner °fan Attempt to oblige
them to embrace the Christian religion ; and what
is matter of some astonishment i 4, that it is in proof
that the attempt is not 100 gross fur those by 'whot-n
we conceive it to have been made..'

Turbans, and of a great variety of forms, had long
been in use among the different corps of our Native
Troops ; and it will be necessary to shew,- in order
to prove that the adoption of ajnew and better form
of a turban was.contrary to the laws of thz• East, that
it was prohibited by anticipation by those laws, when,
they were formed, although the varieties before in-;
trOduced were permitted : that is, that it was ,so
specially prohibited from a period at least of. wiry
remote antiquity. But' even this would not justify
the troops entering into a conspiracy to reje& it, be-
fore they knew it was of the prohibited term ; and
we have the confession (m) of the principal conspi-
rator, that the Native Officers of the Second Batta-
lions of the First Regiments had determined, at a
meeting held on'the.Glacis of Vellore, on the oppo-
sition to it, before they had seen it ; that is, befbre
they knew it was of the prohibited foriti.

(i) General Order by Government, July 4, 1845.
(k) Memoir on the Mutiny at Vellore;by a GencratWilcer,,
(MS.) Oct. i, 1806.
{1) Ibid.
(m)Shaik Cassim,'s'confession,
• (,TaZe conanucti,)