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CHAPTER XVII

THE HISTORICAL POSITION OF THE FORESTS DURING THE

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PERIOD 1858-1864

THE INDIAN MUTINY AND ITS RESULTS

FURTHER and unforeseen devastation of a part of the forests of India took place during the period now dealt with, the forests of Central and Upper India bearing the chief brunt of the unorganised and destructive fellings which were made in them-a destruction which has caused the Forest Department much bitter uphill work to remedy; for the rehabitation of these forests will be the work of another half century and more; whilst some forests suffered so severely as to practically disappear.

To enable the cause of this devastation to be understood, occurring at a time when the first fair beginnings of Forest Conservancy were appearing in some parts of the country, and after the pronouncement of the Forest Charter by Lord Dalhousie, allusion must be made to the historical and political condition of India at this period.

The Indian Mutiny burst like a bombshell over the country in May, 1857. The end of this struggle saw the disappearance of the old East India Company and the Court of Directors, and Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India.

The Mutiny taught the British the danger of isolation due to the want of facilities for rapid communication, which were practically non-existent throughout the country. A tremendous impetus was given to railway construction, and this impetus was severely felt by the forests.

When Lord Canning succeeded Lord Dalhousie as GovernorGeneral in 1856, the condition of British India had never been deemed more fair and promising. The farewell address of the latter had declared that India was in peace without and within," and that there appeared to be "no quarter from which a formidable war could reasonably be expected at

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present." This conviction seems to have been general amongst the whole of the Anglo-British community, and was voiced by the British and Anglo-Indian Press. The native army was considered to be absolutely loyal, and there appears to be little reason to doubt that, at the time of Lord Dalhousie's departure, in spite of Russian and Persian intrigues, in the main there was little disaffection. That the Company's rule was vitiated by glaring abuses and acts due to a shortsighted policy is now a matter of history; but the caste system of the people and their religious susceptibilities had been treated with a wise discretion. The Pax Britannica ran throughout the country, as was evidenced by the security afforded to private property, the great increase in the agricultural prosperity of the country, and the enormous increase in the flocks possessed by the community, an unfailing sign of orderly rule; for herds of cattle are a class of property particularly subject to theft in unsettled communities. Compared to the condition of things half a century earlier India was peaceful, orderly and achieving prosperity. The statements contained in Lord Dalhousie's address may be considered to faithfully represent the position of the country at the time.

It is true that there was a section of opinion at home which considered that the Indians should be given a larger share in the government of the country. But this opinion was practically confined to those who had never been in the East, nor come into close touch with the great variety of different races of India, and the methods of the exisiting administration. India was far from ready for such experiments. India was still uneducated. It was only in 1854 that measures for extending education by Government grants were adopted, and these measures were at first viewed with strong distrust by the people, a distrust which was fanned by an active propaganda, which attributed the new departure to a wish to proselytise the people.

Perhaps one of the chief causes of general discontent in India, apart from the special cause of the Mutiny, was to be found in the policy of the Company to spend as little on improvements in the country as possible. În the case of the forests the history of the first half-century brings this attitude into strong relief, when the trumpery expenditure on such small staffs as were sanctioned for forest work is taken into account. The expenditure of the Company on public works in India was but little greater. Large sums were expended on the salaries

of the large staff of high officials, and the great number of Collectors throughout the country, and on the revenue establishment generally; but the amounts allotted for the engineers' staff and public works were kept as low as possible. That this was a short-sighted policy in a country such as India, a mistake which the common mass of the people themselves would readily realise as a hardship, is beyond dispute. For the Government's predecessors had from time immemorial acted very differently. Under Mahomedan and Hindu government, the princes and nobles had ever delighted in associating their names with some stately edifice, some great road or canal, some public work of more or less utility. It was a fashion which those who made fortunes and a name delighted to follow. The Company had made no effort to follow an example so generally understood and expected by the people. On the contrary, in this matter they had pursued a policy of narrowminded short-sightedness, which it is difficult to credit, when it is remembered that though they were traders they had evinced a wonderful shrewdness in bringing peace to the country as a whole. Nor did any of the British who made great fortunes in the country, with the exception of such notable examples as Sir Henry Lawrence and a few others, ever think of devoting a portion of their wealth to India, where they had accumulated it.

The absence of good roads in the country at this period was notorious. They were confined to a few Grand Trunk roads and others required for purely military or governmental purposes; and those made by the British Planting community in the districts where they carried on their operations. Railways were practically non-existent. The consequence of this parsimonious and short-sighted policy was severely felt in the periods of recurring famine, due to the failure, or partial failure of the monsoons, to which India is always liable. In the almost total absence of transport facilities these famines resulted in a terrible mortality amongst the people of the afflicted districts. That no strong effort had been made to minimise these difficulties and reduce the danger is a grave indictment of the Company's administration.

The same apathy displayed in the construction of communications was apparent in the absence of any systematic efforts to dig canals and tanks (pond or lake) for the agricultural community. And the lack of communications also had a serious effect on the accessible forest lands in the neighbour

hood of the large cities and towns. The repeated demands made upon these areas to provide for the requirements of the communities led through constant and ruthless exploitation to the entire disappearance of considerable forest tracts.

This was the position when, in 1856, the Authorities decided upon replacing the old " Brown Bess "musket by the " Minié rifle. The cartridges of these rifles were greased, and the soldiers, in the words of the drill book, had " to bring the cartridge to the mouth, holding it between the forefinger and thumb with the ball in their hand, and bite off the top elbow close to the body." This was tantamount to asking the high-caste native to defile himself and lose his caste by touching the fat of animals, and probably of cows. For the fat used for the cartridges made at home was from animals, and the paper so treated had to be torn with the teeth before the cartridge could be used. The representations of the Sepoys were treated with contempt by the Commander-in-Chief, in spite of warnings from British officers who understood the true position; and a belated attempt to revoke the order came too late. There were other grievances connected with the decision that all regiments, including the Bengal ones, must undertake oversea service, the order entailing a loss of caste to the latter which might take years to get back.

The peace and prosperity of the spring of 1856 had disappeared in the opening months of 1857, and on Sunday, May 10th, the Indian Mutiny broke out at Meerut. Nearly a year elapsed before the insurrection was quelled. During that period the extraordinary want of statesmanship and vacillation which heralded and attended its opening phases had given place to numberless examples of unexampled heroism; many fine and brave men, British and Indian, had gone to their long account; whilst British women had shown once again the magnificent courage with which they are capable of facing adversity and even death.

The incidence of the Mutiny at once threw into glaring relief the paucity of the communications in the country. The necessity for railway construction, if only to facilitate the movement of troops and their equipment, had become evident. The Government set themselves feverishly to work to repair the want of foresight of their predecessors. The urgent demands for timber to provide the sleepers for the new railway lines were met in the time-honoured fashion, and great forest areas in the central and northern parts of India which, owing

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