Being in the world of antiques and vintages I believe each and every artefact, painting or oleograph print has it’s own story to tell us and we call it “History”!! Recently there were two new oleograph prints added to Purathanam collection and they taught me a great deal about the historical event called “Delhi Durbar” which happened thrice during the time of British Raj in India. The first one in 1877, then in 1903 and lastly the 1911. Out of these three Delhi Durbars, we were able to find 2 prints which are of the years 1903 and 1911.
Following are the 2 Oleograph prints which we found of Delhi Durbars from 1903 and 1911.
(An Oleograph print from Purathanam Collection: Curzon’s Delhi Darbar 1903; Sheldon Williams marvelous water color painting of the Duke and Duchess of Connaught and the Curzons on the elephants.)
(An Oleograph print from Purathanam Collection: Imperial Delhi Darbar 1911; Their Majesties King George & Queen Mary with the ruling Princes and Rajah of India; original coloured lithograph. Copyrighted, printed & published by A. Vivian Mansell & Co., London E.C.)
What would you say if I say, that everything started with a company called British East India company in 1600. To know the root cause of Delhi Darbar in 1877 we really need to go 277 years back and understand how the East India Company was born in 1600.
Birth of ‘The East India Company’ (EIC):
The British East India company was one of the most important economic and political organizations in the world during 1600s.
(The old Indian office, London)
‘The East India Company’ was first established on 31st December, 1600 by a group of 200 English merchants petitioning the Queen of England Elizabeth - I (1533–1603) to form this company mainly to promote the British trade in the far east including India, China and Japan. As a result they were issued Royal Charter, which means a formal grant issued by the King or Queen under royal prerogative as letters patent. Queen Elizabeth - I granted this royal charter to this corporation named “Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies” Which essentially gave the British East India Company a monopoly on all the trade in the Far East.
Factories & Trading posts of East India company in India:
(First fleet of the East India Company leaving Woolwich, 1601 stock illustration)
(Image Ref: Woodcut depicting a trading office belonging to the East India Company in Surat, India c1615.)
The company ships of EIC were docked at Surat, Gujarat in 1608. When initially the company started showing high profits in India in 1609 the then King James- I, renewed the East India Company's charter for an indefinite period, having a clause saying the privileges will be cancelled if the trade was unprofitable for three consecutive years.
(View of Masulipatam in 1676)
Then EIC established its first Indian factory in 1613 at Surat, Gujara and it’s second factory in 1616 at Masulipatnam, which was actually an ancient town on the Andhra Coast of the Bay of Bengal. Muslin trading was a major source of income for the kingdom since 1st BCE and contributed to its immense prosperity in the 1620s and 1630s during British East India Company. The word ‘Muslin’ was named after this town. Then company established its trading posts in Madras in 1639, Bombay in 1668 and Calcutta in 1690. The major factories became the walled forts of Fort William in Bengal, Fort St George in Madras, and Bombay Castle.
(Madras Seaport:The English settlement of Fort St George on the Coromandel Coast. Madras)
(Malabar Hill-Bombay, the East India Company's port on the Malabar Coast of India.)
Growth of British East India Company;
In 1600 when British East India Company came to India for trading, it faced heavy competition with French, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch. Slowly British East India Company moved their focus from spice trading to conquering mainland India. After the Death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603 James I comes to the British throne. In 1612 the King of England James I sends a letter to the Mughal Emperor, Nur-ud-din Salim Jahangir (r. 1605–27,), Son of Akbar, asking him to grant British East India Company the permission to be allowed access to the Indian mainland.
(Sir Thomas Stood Before The Mogul' (c1908), from 'Our Empire Story,' by HE Marshall (Thomas Nelson And Sons, London), c1920. Thomas Roe (1581-1644) was the first ambassador from Great Britain to India, from 1615-1618 Roe remained at the court of the Great Mogul, Jahangir, in Agra, India.)
At the time the Mughal Empire was the largest and most powerful kingdom in India. Some parts of Pakistan and parts of Bangladesh were also included in the Mughal empire. In 1617 A.D, Mughal Emperor Jahangir wrote remarkably a polite letter granting access in to the mainland for trading. He also appointed the first English ambassador Thomas Roe to the Mughal court on behalf of the East India Company. This letter exclusively allowed the British to reside and build factories in India, in areas such as Surat. As part of the deal, the British East India Company got the exclusive trading rights in India, such that it did not have to compete with other European traders. In return the company promised to provide the emperor with rare items from Europe for giving such exclusive rights.
Military Strength of East India company:
By the mid 1700s, the company faced less resistance from European competitors but more from local Indian rulers. In 1750 the company had only about 3,000 soldiers, but by 1778 it had over 67,000. The company used this private army to fight battles for its further expansion into India from the areas it controlled in Bengal, Madras and Bombay.
(Sepoy Reference: From Charles Hamilton Smith's 'Costumes of the Army of the British Empire, according to the last regulations 1812', published by Colnaghi and Company, 1812-1815.)
There was a common practise followed by all the European powers in India (The Dutch Republic, England, France, and Denmark–Norway) which is, recruiting the Indian men into their own armies and making them fight on their behalf in India. They were called ‘Sepoys’. The sepoys were trained and armed in the European manner, and were organised into battalions led by European officers. The units were called “native sepoys” up till 1885, after which the term "native" was dropped and were called ‘Sepoys’. The term ‘sepoy’ was derived from the Persian word sepāhī. It was originally used in the Mughal Empire before the arrival of Europeans, as a term to refer soldiers who fight on-foot in the army. EIC recruited more sepoys and gained control over huge sections of the Indian subcontinent.
The Battle of Plassey;
(The Battle of Plassey', (1757), 1890. From "Cassell's Illustrated Universal History, Vol. IV - Modern History", by Edmund Ollier. [Cassell and Company, Limited, London, Paris and Melbourne, 1890]. Artist Unknown.)
In 1757 the East India Company's officials in Bengal started to misuse their privileges and became uncontrollable. They even stopped paying their taxes. This created conflict between the Nawab of Bengal Siraj-ud-Daulah and the East India Company and became the main reason for the Battle of Plassey. The Nawab was also supported by the French who had their own economic interest in the region. The Battle of Plassey was fought at Palashi, on the banks of the Bhagirathi river near Calcutta on June 23, 1757.
Robert Clive’s contribution in Expanding the Company;
(Robert Clive in military uniform. The Battle of Plassey is shown behind him. By Nathaniel Dance. National Portrait Gallery, London.)
Robert Clive was a British military officer and also a famous historical figure who played a significant role during the time of the British East India Company. Clive's actions have been criticised by historians due to poor actions in the Bengal famine of 1770 and his economic management of India. The Scottish historian William Dalrymple has called Clive an "unstable Sociopath”. The soldiers of British East India Company was led by him during the Battle of Plassey and won over the Nawab and French Allies on June 23rd, 1757. The victory in the Battle of Plassey was important for the EIC because it gave the foothold in Bengal and having a strong hold in Bengal, the company was able to expand throughout the rest of India. Robert Clive played a major role in company’s growth.
‘Company Rule’ comes to an end:
After the battle of Plassey, the British East India company went from simply exerting economic influence to fully controlling the political and economic affairs of the region and ruled India over a century which is exactly from 1757 to 1858. Historians refer this period as ‘Company Rule’ or ‘Company Raj’. EIC simply achieved this by expanding its military strength in the region. In fact, by 1857, the British East India Company had several armies that totaled as much as 267,000 soldiers.
However, the power of the British East India Company in India ended in 1857 with the outbreak of the Sepoy Rebellion.
‘Sepoy Mutiny’ the reason for British East India Company to loose India to British Monarch:
(Indian soldiers (sepoys) of the Bengal army of EIC rebelling in a battle scene during the Indian Mutiny (1857 - 1859).
East India Company controlled the subcontinent of India throughout much of the 18th century. The company did this by enforcing economic policies that benefitted it, and by suppressing uprisings from local Indian rulers. Company used the help of its private armies called sepoys. They tried to expand the company by increasing its military strength just by recruiting more sepoys throughout India.
('Havelock's column attacking the mutineers before Cawnpore', 1857, (c1860). Illustration from The History of the Indian Mutiny, by Charles Ball, Volume I, The London Printing & Publishing Company, (c1860).)
India had large populations of both Muslims and Hindus, which meant that these religious faiths were heavily represented among the sepoy soldiers. The sepoys from north and central India started to rebel against the company mainly by the introduction of cartridges which were greased with animal fat. It was said to be greased with a combination of beef and pork fat. This is significant, because pork was considered repulsive to Muslims, while beef was considered repulsive to Hindus. As such, rumors of the grease in the rifles spread throughout the ranks of the Muslim and Hindu sepoy soldiers, which led to the outbreak of the rebellion. Also company started collecting taxes from the sepoys and factors like this led to a growing sense of mistrust towards the British on behalf of the sepoys, which resulted in the 1857 rebellion. There were other issues that angered the Indian soldiers but rumors of the ‘grease in the rifles’ was the main trigger for ‘Sepoy Rebellion’ or ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ which first began in Meerut on May 10th, 1857 and lasted until November 1st, 1858.
(Siege of Delhi, Indian Mutiny, September 1857. Colonel Campbell's troops storming the Cashmere Gate after engineers had blown it up. From the Illustrated London News, 1857.)
(First Regiment of Bengal Fusiliers leaving the Dughshai camp, May 1857 (or Sepoy Rebellion) against the British colonial power and the East India Company.)
Even though the rebellion first began in the Indian city of Meerut, it quickly spread to other regions, including Delhi, which was captured by the sepoy soldiers in May of that year. The British East India Company was literally struggling to handle the rebellion as the number of Indian sepoys were five times larger when compared to the British soldiers. For example, in 1857, there were over 267,000 Indian sepoy soldiers in the armies of the British East India Company and only about 50,000 British soldiers. As such, the fighting between the two sides was fierce and led to many deaths and atrocities, including the massacre of civilians. While exact numbers are hard to pinpoint, historians estimate that as many as 6,000 Europeans died in the conflict. Furthermore, some estimates put the death toll of Indians as high as 800,000. It is important to note that these figures include death from warfare, famine and the spread of disease that were related to the Sepoy Rebellion. In the end, the Sepoy Rebellion was pushed back by the British East Indian Company with the intervention of British monarch and formally ended on November 1st, 1858. The British East India Company officially lost its control over the Indian subcontinent. The British Parliament passed the Government of India Act on August 2nd, 1858, which effectively ended the company and transferred all of its powers in India to the British Monarchy. So ‘Sepoy Rebellion’ was the most important reason for the British monarchy to take over the control of India from the East India company.
Delhi Darbar a tradition followed by British Monarch:
There was a bill passed in British parliament titled as "An Act for the Better Governance of India" on the 2nd August 1858. This act provided that India was to be governed directly and in the name of the Crown.
(Queen Victoria QueenQueen of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India)
Victoria was then the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield was the British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. In 1877, Benjamin Disraeli, had Queen Victoria proclaimed as Empress of India. India was already under crown control after 1858, but this title was a gesture to link the monarchy with the empire and bring India more close to Britain.
(Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha with Queen Victoria)
After the death of Prince Albert in 1861, Queen Victoria fell in to a great depression. Queen Victoria was mourning Albert very deeply, she chose to wear black for the rest of her life. Her appearance in public was very rare. Queen Victoria opened Parliament in person, the first time since the death of Prince Albert, to announce the change in royal title. The Viceroy, Lord Lytton was asked to officially announce the title of ‘Empress of India’ on her behalf throughout India. So in order to celebrate this, Viceroy Lord Lytton organized the first Delhi Darbar in 1877. The term ‘Durbar’ stood for a huge public ceremony bringing together colonizer and colonized under the British monarch. Delhi Durbars were organised by the Viceroys to mark the coronations of Emperors or Empresses. So, it was also known as the Coronation Durbars. To express their loyalty to the British Raj, the kings, Diwans of native states, great zamindars and native officials attended the darbar.
So that was the historical connection British East Indian company had with the Delhi Durbars.
Please checkout the following link to know more about the oleograph prints of Delhi Darbars:
Delhi Durbar 1903 - Chromolithograph Print, London