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The Fort of Rhotas,
in the Punjab.
The Illustrated London
News - [2 views] 21/04/1849
Chillianwala was on of
the hardest-fought battles. There was a feeling of consternation,
both in British India and in England, over the battle of
Chillianwala which was considered to be a disaster worse
than that in Afghanistan, as more than three thousand British
lay dead or wounded in the ravines and brushwood, and the
camp was overspread with a funeral gloom. Chillianwala was
not a victory." says Dr. Adams,"When the news
of Chillianwala reached England, the nation was stricken
with profound emotion. A long series of military successes
had ill fitted it to hear with composure of British guns
and British standards taken, of British cavalry flying before
the enemy, and of a British army scarcely able by the most
desperate exertions to snatch a victory from a wild Indian
people. It was felt that our fame and influence in India
had undergone a heavy blow; and a disaster was attributed
very generally to the blunders of the Commander-in-Chief."[1]
The battle paralyzed Lord Gough, and Lord Dalhousie lost
his confidence in him. Writing to Sir John Hobhouse on 21.2.1849,
the Governor General said, "If he again fights an incomplete
action with terrible carnage as before, you must expect
of my taking a strong step; he shall not remain in command
of that army in the field."[2] The Times of London
woefully declared that "Lord Gough was playing with
the lives of our soldiers". Sir John Hobhouse, the
President of the Board of Directors, observed on March 7,1849,
"The disaster has thrown the success into the shade
and the impression made upon the public mind is stronger
than that caused by the Kabul Massacre. The result has been
that, in eight-and-forty hours after the arrival of the
mail, it was determined to send Sir Charles Napier to command
the Indian army."[3] Even the eighty-year old Duke
of Wellington, conqueror of Napoleon, offered to go out
to India to fight against the Sikhs, if Napier hesitated.
He said to the latter, "If you do not go, I must."[4]
The English poet, George Meredith wrote a poem in commemoration
of the battle
Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
When the night set in with rain,
Came the savage plundering devils
To their work among the slain;
And the wounded and the dying
In cold blood did share the doom
Of their comrades round them lying,
Stiff in the dead skyless gloom.
The British Subaltern wrote : 'The Sikhs fought like devils
... Such a mass of men I never set eye on and as plucky
as lions : they ran right on the bayonets of the 24th (Regiment)
and struck at their assailants when they were transfixed.'
Next morning Sikh guns boomed a twenty-one gun salute to
their victory. The British also claimed the battle as a
victory. However, writing secretly to the Duke of Wellington
on 22.1.1949 Lord Dalhousie said, "In Public I make,
of course, the best of things, I treat it as a great victory.
But writing confidentially to you I do not hesitate to say
that I consider my position grave."
1. Ganda Singh, The British Occupation of the Punjab, Sikh
History Society,Amritsar-Patiala, 1955, p. 133
2.Ganda Singh, Op. cit., pp. 133-34.
3.Ibid, p. 134.
4.Ibid, p. 134.
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