The most striking anecdote of Valentia is from Lucknow, where the Nawab announced him as “the Lord Sahib’s nephew and Mrs Company’s grandson,” reflecting a popular Indian belief that the East India Company was an old woman and Governors-General her sons.
This metaphor is tragic evidence of the intellectual and moral degradation inflicted on Indians by centuries of Mughal oppression, which reduced the population to servility and stifled dignity.
ON 1st JANUARY 1803, “at daylight,” Viscount Valentia spotted the “southernmost of the Nicobar Islands.” Two hours later, the Minerva approached the beach but found that it was “impracticable” to make a landing. The landing was safely accomplished three days later “off the west side of that island.”
Valentia’s narrative of Nicobar is akin to a vivid landscape painting in prose. His observations of its inhabitants are coated with mixed hues of prejudice and stingy praise.
They are a very muscular race, but far from well made; their features, though ugly, have a pleasing expression : the constant use of the betle renders their large mouths very disgusting, and their irregular teeth perfectly black… Intercourse with strangers had probably given them a suspicious turn; for not one appeared without a weapon…The people speak a broken English, mixed with Portuguese…
The Nicobarites had clearly been habituated to many sporadic visits of Europeans since long.
On 17 JANUARY, Valentia spots the “black pagoda of Jagarnaut” as the Minerva coasted across the sacred Puri Kshetra.
Three days later, the ship anchored at the “mouth of the Hoogly river.” Valentia immediately sends the purser with a letter addressed to Marquis Wellesley. This marks the start of his India adventure.
On January 25, Valentia finds himself in Saugor (Sagar) when he receives a “very handsome answer” from Wellesley, who invites him to a grand party to be held in the new Government house the next day.
JANUARY 26, 1803. 7 A.M.
Valentia bids goodbye to the Minerva and steps into a “state barge” especially sent for him by Wellesley. Its opulence reminds Valentia of “the fairy tales.”
It was very long in proportion to its width, richly ornamented with green and gold; its head, a spread eagle gilt; its stern, a tiger’s head and body; its head, a spread eagle gilt; its stern, a tiger's head and body. The centre would contain twenty people with ease, and was covered with an awning and side curtains: forward were seated twenty natives dressed in scarlet habits, with rose-coloured turbans, who paddled away with great velocity.
This maiden voyage in extravagance was the herald of the royal treatment that Valentia receives throughout his stay in India. He is carried on ornate palanquins; his entourage is packed with elephants and fine steeds; servants of every description - harikaras, chubdars, soontaburdars and khidmatgars studiously attend to him; he receives lavish gifts from natives of all ranks — from the displaced begums and princes of Shah Alam II to the ruined progeny of Hindu chieftains.
He is also diligently courted by the highest rungs of the East India Company’s officialdom starting with Governor General Wellesley. Valentia’s extensive interactions with them reveal several facets of intra-British politics that played out on Indian soil.
The Company’s officials in India are keenly aware of Valentia’s standing as an Earl back home. And so, at every step, they go out of their way to cultivate him. They have transformed inducement and bribery into social etiquette.
On his part, Valentia revels in all the regalia showered upon him and has nothing but effusive praise in return.
THE SCATTERED REMNANTS of the Mughal royalty and its dependents too, courted Valentia, employing the best of their sycophantic talents. One such episode of courtship that occurred in Lucknow is illustrative. It gives a glimpse into the utter degradation of the common citizen under prolonged Mughal rule.
The Nawab of Awadh was informed in advance by his personal messenger of Valentia’s impending arrival in these words: “Lord Saheb ka bhanja, company ki nawasa teshrif laia.” Valentia himself supplies its translation and its full context:
… the Lord (Wellesley) sister's son, and the grandson of Mrs. Company is arrived.” These titles originated from a belief of the natives that the India Company is an old woman, and that the Governors-General are her children. As I did not hold that office, and yet was received with… almost equal, honours, they probably conceived I stood in that degree of relationship. His Excellency conducted me to the steps, and presented the attar. I then returned in my palanquin.
Valentia admits that he was “much amused” by this characterisation of the Company but the lesson underlying his humour is not lost on us. From 1526 to Valentia’s visit (and beyond), the wasteful Mughal regime had reduced its subjects to abject slavery, best summarised by Acharya Jadunath Sarkar:
…when a class of men is publicly depressed and harassed (as under Mus-lim rule) … it merely contents itself with dragging on an animal existence. The Hindus could not be expected to produce the utmost of what they were capable; their lot was to be hewers of wood and drawers of water to their masters, to bring grist to the fiscal mill, to develop a low cunning and flattery as the only means of saving what they could out of the fruits of their own labour. Amidst such social conditions, the human hand and the human mind cannot achieve their best; the human soul cannot soar to its highest pitch. The barrenness of the Hindu intellect and the meanness of spirit of the Hindu upper classes are the greatest condemnation of Muhammadan rule in India.
The fact that our people thought that an English joint stock company was an old woman is a tragedy that transcends tears.
To be continued
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