THE RAJ IN MADHYA PRADESH

The British Raj is now gone and the the British dominion over India is a thing of the past, but the British have left behind a legacy which lives on. Our constitution, our system of governance, our codes of law, our police and our bureaucracy, above all our continuing love affair with the English language, all bear the British imprint. The legacy of the empire is also visible in our public buildings, in colonial bungalows, in that peculiarly British creation—our hill stations, and last but not least—those melancholy relics of British occupation—British cemeteries and graveyards where the servants of the Raj sleep their eternal sleep in dusty and forgotten graves.

Madhya Pradesh like many other states is rich in this legacy. The city that exhales this colonial flavour with peculiar intensity is Jabalpur. You have only to look at the High Court building to see what I mean. This edifice, built like a Scottish baronial castle with rounded turrets and pointed arches is a good example of Scottish gothic architecture. In fact the entire Sadar and Cantonment area is a good example of colonial architecture. The colonial bunglow with gabled arches, a veranda that goes around the house and a tiled roof was a bequest of the Raj and Jabalpur is rich in these bunglows. Many of these bungalows, like the Narmada club or the Collector’s bungalow are kept in good repair but most of them are in various stages of dilapidation. These bungalows, standing in a vast compounds, still inhabited but almost in a state of semi dereliction, can be commonly seen in Jabalpur.
I am rather fond of Jabalpur because one of my first postings was as SDO of Katni which was then a part of Jabalpur district. About twenty miles from Katni, on the NH6 is the large village of Sleemanabad which one often passed on the way to Jabalpur. This village is distinguished by a magnificent avenue of trees planted on both sides of the highway. These stalwart trees, many of them almost a hundred years old, go on for miles and make a tunnel of shade even in the height of summer. The village is named after Colonel Sleeman, the destroyer of thugs, as it was in this village that the last thug in India was hanged by him, hence the name Sleemanabad.

Colonel Sleeman was an army officer and like many other army officers in those days of the early 19th century, was seconded to the civil administration and served as collector of Jabalpur. One of the interesting incidents recorded by Sleeman in his memoirs was an incidence of Sati by a Brahmin widow. She belonged to the Upadhyay family of Jabalpur and had been married for sixty years when the husband died. When the widow announced the decision to immolate herself on her husband’s funeral pyre a huge crowd collected near Bhedagat where the cremation was to take place. When Sleeman learnt of this a large police guard was posted there to prevent the Sati which had been banned by the British government. It is reported that when she learnt of the government’s decision to thwart her she gave up food and water and sat for three days with her husband’s head in her lap. Considering the mounting tension and the restive crowd Sleeman had to give in and the Sati finally took place. A small memorial near Bhedaghat commemorates this forgotten incident. Sleeman died on his way back to England and was buried at sea.

A contemporary of Sleeman in Jabalpur was Major James Forsythe of the 7th Bengal Lancers who wrote the well-known book ‘The Highland of Central India.’ Forsythe is credited with being the discoverer of Pachmarhi. He was assigned the job of exploring the region and making maps of it when he came upon a park-like region of enormous trees on the top of a plateau. The spot can still be seen where the old Pachmarhi road emerges on to the plateau of Pachmarhi after a long climb. Forsythe constructed the first brick and mortar structure on the Pachmarhi plateau. Happily the building still stands and is now called the Bison Lodge and houses a museum run by the Forest department.

Pachmarhi is to my mind one of the most beautiful hill stations in India. It is naturally redolent with the spirit of the Raj. Ironically the most magnificent colonial building in Pachmarhi—the Raj Bhavan—was built by an Indian. It actually belonged to the Agrawal family of Harda and was acquired by the British from them. On the road to Apsara Vihar one comes across a gothic gate leading to an avenue of magnificent cypress trees and a British cemetery. This sequestered spot contains a veritable treasure trove for the student of colonial history. There are a large number of children among the dead testifying to the heavy price the settler had to pay for colonizing a land whose climate took an exacting toll of life. But the most interesting memorial is a grave in one corner. This is the grave of one Pandit Nain, aged 96. Who was this old Brahmin one wonders. Why did he convert to Christianity and why is he buried in this graveyard. Questions which perhaps some descendant of the Pandit may be able to answer.

I mentioned the Bengal Lancers in connection with Major Forsythe. Another memorial of this regiment is found in the graveyard on the outskirts of Betul. This cemetery unlike the one in Pachmarhi is in a stage of absolute dereliction. The boundary wall has crumbled away. A portion remains, canting at a precarious angle and plastered with cow dung cakes which are used by the natives of a slum which has come up across the road. But the graves are extravagant, surmounted by tents and pyramids of graying, crumbling masonry and date from the late 18th or the early 19th century. One feels a little sad that so much history is being allowed to just crumble away, but that is the fate of all historical buildings in India. Perhaps we have too much history to conserve or feel any attachment to.

(The author is a writer and an ex- IAS officer)