India only. They were never to be required to cross the sea. It happened, however, in 1852, whilst the second Burmese war was being waged, that the Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, desired to send a native regiment to that country in addition to those then employed there. There were many ways of accomplishing this end without riding roughshod over the rights and engagements of the sipáhís. Lord Dalhousie might have despatched one of the six regiments pledged to service across the sea, or he might have called for volunteers. He did neither. He arbitrarily selected a regiment stationed at Barrackpur, the sipáhís of which had enlisted on the condition that they were to serve in Hindustan, and in Hindustan only. The sipáhís, whose minds had been emancipated, by the process referred to in the preceding page, from all respect for their commanding officer, had none for a Governor-General who trod upon their privileges. They flatly refused to embark. Lord Dalhousie was placed by his own act in the invidious position of having to succumb. The story spread like wildfire all over India. The effect[1] of it was most disastrous to discipline. In the lines and huts of the sipáhís the warmest sympathy was expressed for a regiment which could thus successfully defy a Governor-General.
Then followed the crowning act: the act which touched to the quick nine-tenths of the sipáhís in the Bengal army, and many of those serving in the Bombay Presidency. The sipáhís serving in Madras were not affected by it. When the storm came, in 1857, the Madras sipáhís then took no part in the revolt. The case may thus be stated. The majority of the sipáhís serving in the Bengal Presidency, and a proportion of those serving in the Bombay army, were recruited from the kingdom of Oudh. The sipáhí
- ↑ I am writing from my own personal experience.
