Joining the Regiment

Sita Ram describes his journey to Agra, or Akbarabad as it was then called, where his uncle's regiment formed part of the garrison. He also tells of his enlistment into the Army.

Travel in India during the break-up of the Mughal empire was a hazardous business. Bands of armed robbers roamed the countryside and highway robbery was commonplace—‘In those days only the strong man armed could guard his goods, and then only until a stronger than he should come.'¹ But perhaps the greatest hazard came from the thugs, or stranglers, who murdered partly for religious motives, and partly for gain. The thugs travelled in bands, posing as innocent travellers, and joined up with other travellers until the moment had come to strike. They believed themselves to be servants of the goddess Kali, wife of Siva, who had taught them their craft in return for her protection, and the yellow scarf, knotted at one end, with which they strangled their victims, represented the hem of Kali's robe. Murder by strangulation was therefore a divine mission, while the booty obtained thereby was the thugs' earthly reward.

Their secrets were so closely kept that it was many years before the British stumbled on the truth about thuggee, and it took a great deal longer before the evil was eradicated. Some of the bands operated under the patronage of powerful landowners, and there was in any case a conspiracy of silence which was hard to penetrate. A special department was set up to stamp out Thuggee, and for much of its existence it was headed by Sir William Sleeman, an officer of the Bengal Army, whose determination and patience largely contributed to the defeat of Thuggee. Over 3,000 Thugs were convicted between 1831 and 1837, and some of them boasted of 700 or more murders. Sita Ram's party had a narrow escape from a band of thugs who fell in with them on their way to Agra. He gives a good description of how the thugs operated, and of how one of his companions was strangled.

The story of his first encounter, as a credulous Indian village boy, with the almost mythical British, rings true to life. It is also descriptive of the almost paternal relationships between officers and sepoys which then existed in the Bengal Army. Later in his memoirs Sita Ram laments the weakening of this relationship, but it is only fair to say that British officers of the Madras and Bombay Armies were critical of their colleagues in the Bengal Army, believing that they paid far too much attention to the religious scruples and susceptibilities of their high-caste sepoys, which in turn led to a weakening of discipline.

My uncle and I went one march in the morning. We rested during the heat of the day under a tree, and in the evening we marched the same distance as we had in the morning. For the night we always put up at a serai² whenever this was possible. On the third day we arrived at a village called Dersungpor where two sepoys of my uncle's regiment, whose leave had finished, joined us. One was called Tillukdaree Gheer, and the other Deonarain. They appeared delighted to meet my uncle and treated him with great respect. Deonarain was accompanied by his younger brother, who was hoping to enlist. They were all carrying swords, and Tillukdaree also had a blunderbuss, called a 'young tiger'. We looked a rather formidable party, and felt secure against the bandits and thugs who then infested the roads.

After about three or four days a party of itinerant musicians came up with us and begged that we should join forces for the sake of protection. They consisted of two men with drums, four men with sitars,³ two men with cymbals, and one with a kind of trumpet. They told us that they were on their way to attend a marriage festival at a town which lay on our way.

For several days everything went smoothly, and the musicians enlivened our march by playing pretty airs. But during the night of the fourth day my uncle, happening to be awake, discovered that all the musicians had collected together and were in some earnest debate, speaking in a low tone of voice and in a tongue⁴ which he could not understand. Alarmed at what he saw, he immediately aroused the other sepoys and told them he believed that the musicians were in reality thugs. He then appointed one of our party to watch them while the rest of us again laid down to sleep.

The next morning my uncle told the musicians that he was obliged to make long marches, and that therefore they would be unable to keep up with us. They, however, begged to be allowed to accompany us, and at the same time expressed great fear of being robbed on the road. Nevertheless my uncle marched very early the next morning, leaving them behind. We went some eight miles on the high road, and then branched off by a side path, intending to join the road again some thirty miles farther on.

The next four days passed without incident. At the evening's halting-place on the fourth day we were joined by a party of about twelve men, carrying bundles of bamboos which are used for making pipe-stems. These men begged to be allowed to join us for protection, as the musicians had done. In the morning, when it was light, I fancied that one of these men was remarkably like one of the former party, and mentioned this to my uncle who went to them and entered into conversation. But their language was different from that of the musicians, their clothes were very dirty, and they looked like coolies. Still he was on his guard, and appointed one of the sepoys to keep awake and watch the movements of these people.

During the night, after we had halted, I could not go to sleep for a long time, as I believed these men were also thugs. However, in spite of my endeavours to keep awake, I fell asleep eventually, but was shortly afterwards awakened by a noise like a cock crowing close by.⁵ I sat up, and in a moment one or two of these men were by the side of the sleepers. I shouted loudly, and my uncle jumped up with his sword drawn, and rushed at them. Although this was the work of a moment, the fiends had managed to strangle the brother of Deonarain with a silk cord, and had rendered Tillukdaree senseless. He was just saved by my uncle who cut down the thug standing over him. The others disappeared immediately, leaving their bundles of sticks behind them. However, in this short space, the thugs had managed to steal my uncle's gold beads, worth 250 rupees,⁶ and Tillukdaree's blunderbuss. He had fallen asleep when he was supposed to be on watch.

After all this had happened, we went to the village nearby and roused the entire population, but no-one showed the slightest inclination to pursue the blood-thirsty murders. We passed the remainder of the night on the outskirts of the village, having carried with us the dead body of Deonarain's brother. In the morning we found the bamboos still at our former camping place, and my uncle sold them to a tobacco merchant for 46 rupees, but not without an altercation with the village headman who claimed that they belonged to him, by right of their having been left on his ground. We stayed a complete day at the village in order to perform the funeral rites for Deonarain's unfortunate brother. Fortunately for Deonarain's comfort we were only a few miles from the holy Ganges, and he had the satisfaction of seeing the priest cast his brother's ashes into the stream, thus securing his brother rest in our Hindu heaven. Tillukdaree was so weak from the effect of the thug's cord round his throat that he was obliged to hire a pony cart, and we proceeded, now a mournful party, on our way.

My uncle now allowed no parties of any kind to join us, although several begged hard to do so since they saw we were armed. Nothing of any consequence took place during the rest of the journey so far as I can remember, until we arrived at Agra, where my uncle's regiment was then stationed.⁷ We arrived there on 14 November, and when we came near the lines we met several sepoys of the regiment going down to the Jumna to bathe. They all embraced my uncle, and, before we came to the lines, some thirty men of his Company came running out to meet him and asked a thousand questions. My uncle went to his own house, which had been kept neat and clean by a havildar who had lived in it during my uncle's absence.

After bathing, and eating the morning meal, my uncle put on full regimentals and went to pay his respects to the Adjutant sahib,⁸ and Commanding Officer. He took me with him. I was rather dreading this because I had never yet seen a sahib and imagined they were terrible to look on and of great stature—at least seven feet tall! In those days there were only a few sahibs in Oudh; only one or two sahib Residents in Lucknow, where I had never been.⁹ In the villages of my country the most extraordinary ideas existed about them, and any one who had chanced to see a sahib told the most curious stories. In fact nothing was too far-fetched to be believed. It was said that they were born from an egg which grew on a tree, and this idea still exists in remote villages. Had a memsahib¹⁰ come suddenly into some of our villages, she would, if young and handsome, have been considered to be some kind of fairy, and would probably have been worshipped; but should she have been old and ugly, the whole village would have run away to hide in the jungle, believing her to be a witch. It is therefore hardly surprising that I should have been so terrified at the prospect of seeing a sahib for the first time in my life.

I remember once, when I was attending a fair at the Taj Mahal in Agra, an old woman said she had always believed that sahibs came from eggs which grew on a tree; but that morning she had seen a sahib with a fairy by his side. The fairy was covered with feathers of the most beautiful colours, her face was as white as milk, and the sahib had to keep his hand on her shoulders to prevent her from flying away. All this the old woman had seen with her own eyes, and she swore it was true. I am not so ignorant now, of course, but I would have believed it when first I arrived at Agra. I afterwards often saw that sahib driving out with his lady. She wore a tippet made from peacock feathers, and the old woman had mistaken this for wings.

We went to the Adjutant's house, which was four times the size of the headman's house in my village. He was on the verandah, with a long stick, measuring young men who were recruits. He was very young, not as tall as myself, and had no whiskers nor moustache. His face was quite smooth and looked more like a woman's than a man's. This was the first sahib I had ever seen, and he did not fill me with much awe. I did not believe he could be much of a warrior with a face as smooth as that since among us it is considered a disgrace to be clean-shaven; in fact a smooth-faced soldier is usually the butt for many jokes. However he banged those young recruits' heads against the wall in a manner which showed he had no fear, and they looked as if they thought he was about to kill them.

After he had finished with the measuring, the Adjutant took notice of my uncle, and to my surprise spoke to him in my own language. He seemed glad to see him, asked after his welfare, and touched his sword.¹¹ He then asked who I was, and on being informed that I had come to enlist and was my uncle's nephew, he told my uncle to take me to the Doctor sahib, to whom he wrote a letter. I was astonished at the speed of his writing; in less time than I could have put water to the ink and written one line, he had filled a page, which he then doubled up and gave to my uncle, and we went to the Doctor sahib's house.

This was even bigger than the Adjutant's. My uncle told me that the Doctor was married and had several children. He was at home and we were ordered into his presence. A chair was provided for my uncle, but no notice was taken of me so I squatted on the ground. My uncle made me stand up, and told me afterwards that it was bad manners to sit down in the presence of a sahib. After reading the note, the Doctor ordered me to strip, but I was so ashamed I could not move, for there was a memsahib in the room. She was sitting at a table covered with a sheet, and feeding two children with eggs—those unclean things!¹² I began to regret having followed my uncle, and remembered the priest's warning about being defiled. However I was ordered sharply to take off my clothes, and both the children began calling out—'Papa says you are to take your clothes off! Don't you understand? Donkey, pig, owl!'—and the Doctor joined in, saying I was a fool and an ignorant villager. Then the children cried out—'Oh, mamma, is he covered with hair?' I was so ashamed that I ran out onto the verandah, but my uncle came out and told me not to be afraid. No harm would be done to me. The Doctor then pushed me into an empty room and examined me, by thrusting his hand against my stomach, which nearly made me vomit. Then he opened my eyelids with such violence that tears came into my eyes, and he thumped my chest. After this he pronounced me fit and ceased tormenting me—to my great relief.

My uncle next went to pay his respects to the Colonel sahib. We were kept outside for an hour, and then ordered to approach. I was now in such a state of terror, not knowing what horror might next befall me, that my legs knocked together. I imagined that the Colonel sahib must be terrible to gaze upon—he commanded one thousand men—his wish was law! Judge my surprise when I saw an old man, very short and stout, without a hair on his head or face, and with a skin of a bright red colour. He was smoking a magnificent hookah.¹³ He got up to welcome my uncle, and after I was introduced spoke very kindly to me, telling me to be a good boy and imitate my uncle in everything. I have said this was the first time in my life I had ever seen any sahibs. I had now seen three, and how different they were to my ideas of them. I could not believe they were so brave as they were reputed to be; they were all smaller than my uncle and did not look half as strong. And what a number of curious things they had in their houses. I could not imagine what they did with them. In one corner of the Colonel's room was a table full of glass cups of all sorts and sizes, and in another corner a stand with seven or eight guns. The walls were hung with the heads of animals —tigers, stags, antelope, and other deer. The sahib was wearing a tight blue coat, buttoned up to the throat with big brass buttons, and with two lumps of what I then thought was gold on his shoulders.¹⁴ He wore white pantaloons, and long black boots with golden tassels on either side. Although I was not struck with his size or strength, still there was something in his eyes which I shall never forget; they were like the eyes of a hawk and seemed to look through and through one. After we had left, my uncle told me that the Colonel was a renowned sportsman who had killed as many as nine tigers.

In a few days I was sent to begin my drill. It is a day I shall always remember, for is it not impressed for ever on my mind? The parade-ground was covered by parties of six or eight men, performing the most extraordinary movements I had ever seen, and these to orders in a language of which I did not understand a single word.15 I felt inclined to laugh, and stood astonished at the sight. However a violent wrench of my ear by the drill havildar [sergeant] soon brought me to my senses. I had to attend drill for many months, and one day I happened to forget how to do something and was so severely cuffed on the head by the drill havildar that I fell down senseless. I complained to my uncle who was very angry with the drill havildar. Although he never dared to strike me again, from that day on he bullied me in every other way and used to abuse me at every opportunity. As I had gone to great pains to learn my duties, I resented this treatment very much and had almost made up my mind to run away. The drill havildar told the Adjutant that I was obstinate and stupid, and would never make a soldier.

I told my uncle of the treatment I was receiving, and said I repented of ever having come with him. But he encouraged me, and one day the Colonel sahib came to inspect the recruits and I managed to do my drill to his satisfaction. He ordered the Adjutant to test me in the whole of my drill, and the Adjutant told the Colonel that I was fit to join the ranks. I so longed to wear a red coat, and to have a musket of my own. Besides which, I had only been eight months at my drill, and out of a party of seventy-eight recruits, many of whom had enlisted before me, I was the only one selected to join the ranks. Few were ever sent to do this, unless in war-time, until they had been at drill for a year, and often for even longer periods.