Recent conversations and emails with my Chitradurga friends and acquaintances made me realize that little is known locally about the period when British soldiers and civilians lived there, mostly because so many of the relevant historical records are held far away in archives and libraries in New Delhi and the United Kingdom. My object here is to sketch a broad historical outline of the British experience at Chitradurga. I also try to explain why they came, why some of them settled in Chitradurga, and why most were gone by the 1830s.
Two other pages on this website also address the Chitradurga British. The British Lives at Chitradurga webpage brings together available information about baptisms, marriages, and deaths. The recently updated Chitradurga Cemetery page adds details about some of the individuals interred there.
As shall be seen in the sections that follow, the first Europeans at Chitradurga were European mercenaries in Tipu Sultan’s army and hundreds of now-nameless British soldiers and sailors who were held for years as prisoners-of-war. Following Tipu Sultan’s death in 1799, the British garrisoned Chitradurga Fort to serve as part of the Madras Presidency’s first line of defense in northern Mysore against the Marathas and as a supply depot for military stores. Most of these troops were withdrawn to other duty around 1813 as the strategic picture changed, but they returned during the Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817-1819), which broke Maratha power and left the British supreme in the South. The garrison was removed again in the 1820s, after which the East India Company sold its public buildings at Chitradurga and returned control of the fort to Mysore. The European presence subsequently dwindled to a few foreign missionaries and the occasional tourist.
Today, the most visible material remains of Chitradurga’s former British population are the tombs in the cemetery on Head Post Office Road south of the city bus stand. As originally posted on this website, the cemetery webpage gave only minimal information about the people buried there. The revised page and the following sections try to place these men, women, and children more into the context of the unusual period of Chitradurga history during which they lived and to present them to readers more as ordinary people who were simply trying to do their jobs and get on with their lives.
Chitradurga in the Mysore Wars
Beginning in 1767, the East India Company fought four wars with Mysore, each of which was about a decade apart. All of these conflicts yielded British and Indian prisoners-of-war, particularly during the Second and Third Mysore wars of 1780-1784 and 1790-1792, respectively. The prisoners included soldiers, sailors, and merchants, as well as women and children. Some died in captivity and some escaped, but many spent years and in some cases more than a decade as forced labourers or were impressed into military service as part of chela battalions at different Mysore forts, one of which was Chitradurga.
We will never know exactly how many British prisoners were sent to Chitradurga during these wars, much less their names or their fates. John Lindsay (1849:300), who was imprisoned at Srirangapatna for most of the Second Mysore War, noted that at one point about 300 British prisoners were sent from that region to Chitradurga to ease Mysore’s fear than the growing number of prisoners at Srirangapatna might make it vulnerable to internal revolt. Chitradurga also received hundreds of British and Indian prisoners after General Mathews surrendered his army to Tipu Sultan at Bednore late in the same war (Oakes 1785).
A few escapees and other survivors later published accounts in which they describe the conditions of their captivity, where they were imprisoned, the names of other prisoners who shared their fate, and the like. William Drake was a young Midshipman aboard the Hannibal, which was captured by the French off the coast of India in 1782. The French, who were also at war with the British, threw a new crew into the Hannibal and turned the ship’s former officers and men over to Mysore as captives. Many of these men ended up at Chitradurga where they were prisoners into the early 1790s. Drake, who escaped from Chitradurga, published the story of his captivity in English-language newspapers in India and Britain (Seton-Karr 1865; The Times 1792). Because he was an officer, Drake’s experience in captivity appears to have been less harsh than that of James Scurry (1825), a marine from another ship captured by the French and imprisoned at Chitradurga. Forced into a chela battalion (one made up largely of captives), Scurry saw action as a soldier for Mysore before escaping to freedom. Many of his fellow prisoners died in captivity and their corpses were said to have been tossed over the fort parapet on a steep side of the hill and left for scavengers and vultures to dispose of the remains.
Like most British accounts from the South Indian wars of the late eighteenth century, Drake’s and Scurry’s accounts paint a picture of horrible atrocities and abuse suffered by prisoners in the hands of Mysore. Even if we concede the possibility that their narratives may exaggerate some episodes of their captivity, well-documented accounts of prisoner-of-war mistreatment can be found in all wars. Compare, for example, the abuse of prisoners by the Japanese throughout Southeast Asia during World War II; by United States troops at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq; or by Indian troops at Kanpur in 1857 – different wars, same problems. Wars are nasty, evil undertakings and, sadly enough, contemporary descriptions of prisoner mistreatment during the Mysore wars may well be true.
Drake’s and Scurry’s accounts of their years of captivity give insight into the composition of Tipu Sultan’s garrison at Chitradurga around 1790. Drake described it as “four nominal battalions of Cheylah [chela], consisting of about 800; twelve nominal battalions of Regular Infantry, consisting of about 2,300; about 3,000 peadas [peons] stationed in the upper Fort called Maldroog; 1,500 peadas stationed in the lower Fort; two Companies (120) of Goolandaze [gunners] Native, and one Company (60) of Goolandaze, stationed without the Fort, consisting of Europeans, deserters, and Native Christians; 300 or 400 Irregulars, armed with swords, pikes, clubs, bows, and arrows” (The Times 1792:2-3). While the garrison was big in numbers, the scratch battalions made up of captives and deserters could hardly have made a dependable military force. Chitradurga’s killadar may have shared this concern because he made the sensible security decision to move these units from the upper to the lower fort where he could keep an eye on them.
As Drake’s description of the Chitradurga garrison makes clear, deserters from the East India Company’s army and European mercenaries of every stripe peppered the ranks of the Mysore army in the late eighteenth century. These soldiers and the prisoners of war who daily passed them in rags were the first Europeans to reside at Chitradurga. Some of them, like Scurry, even arrived with their Indian wives and children, spouses having been assigned to them by their Mysore captors at Srirangapatna. While records confirm that most surviving prisoners were repatriated after the end of hostilities, there is no record of what happened to their Indian families. Some of their descendants may live in Chitradurga today.
British Garrison
The Fourth Mysore War ended in early May of 1799 with the successful British assault on Srirangapatna and the death of Tipu Sultan. Afterwards, the British concern was that their erstwhile allies the Marathas might decide to pursue their own political agenda and move on northern Mysore while the unsettled conditions of the war’s aftermath were favorable for success. To counter this, the British quickly deployed forces to some of the strategically important northern Mysore forts, Chitradurga among them.
The Chitradurga killadar surrendered the fort without opposition in early July and was pensioned off by the British. By September, they were moving infantry, guns, and stores to this and other northern forts because war with the Marathas was felt to be increasingly possible. Chitradurga was well-placed to be an important potential supply depot for the army and Arthur Wellesley, who commanded British forces in Mysore, initially viewed it in a favourable light. His opinion soon changed after it was found that the fort was in a decrepit state, it made a poor supply depot, and it was unhealthy for Indian and British troops alike. Furthermore, the citizens of Chitradurga were engaged in a campaign of passive resistance against the British invaders. In a letter to the Mysore Resident Barry Close on 28 May 1800, Wellesley complained, “They refuse to take service with us in any manner whatever; at Chittledroog we can get neither recruits, servants, lascars, coolies, or bullock drivers; and I cannot think that it will be very safe to leave in a fort with our troops a large number of fellows such as these are described to be” (Gurwood 1837:125). The people of Chitradurga clearly needed no one to teach them the value of non-cooperation as a weapon. For his part, Wellesley found no solution to Chitradurga’s many problems other than to adapt the fort and town as best he could to the needs of the military and to move all of the Chitradurga citizens who lived in the upper and lower forts out into the town proper, all of which he did.
The signing of the Treaty of Bassein between the Maratha Peshwa and the East India Company at the end of 1802 meant that war was now inevitable. Chitradurga’s British population grew sharply as troops, guns, and stores were moved into northern Mysore forts for the anticipated British invasion of the Maratha country. Hostilities commenced in the Second Anglo-Maratha War in the middle of 1803 and ended in 1805 with British success and the weakening of Maratha power. Chitradurga played an important support role for British forces throughout the war and remained an important fort until around 1812.
Chitradurga was mostly a quiet post for the army units sent there in the first decade of the 1800s. While under the command of the British, it was never attacked or even threatened by enemy forces. It did, however, figure prominently in two military scandals. The first came in July and August of 1809, when military officers throughout the Madras Presidency and Mysore mutinied against the civil government, citing grievances, old and new. In Mysore, mutineers took command of the fort at Srirangapatna and prepared to defend it against the Madras Government. At Chitradurga, Capt. Hugh McIntosh and Capt. F. K. Aiskill, commanding detachments of the 8th N. I. and the 15th N. I., respectively, assembled a force of about 1,120 men and marched south to join their fellow mutineers. Forces loyal to the Madras Government engaged them with devastating effect as they neared Srirangapatna. It was estimated that the Chitradurga mutineers lost 9 men dead, 281 missing and presumed dead, 153 wounded, and about 700 captured. McIntosh, wounded, was among the captives. The British forces that attacked them reported no casualties.
The White Mutiny of 1809 was entirely one of British officers (Cardew 1929; Wilson 1882). The Indian officers and the men of companies led by the mutinous officers had not themselves committed mutiny. They executed what they believed to be lawful orders given by their superior officers and many subsequently lost their lives or were badly wounded because of it.
Ironically, the mutiny was largely over even as the Chitradurga force marched south. The defeat of the Chitradurga detachment and the supporting fire rendered by the Srirangapatna mutineers were the only instances of active resistance reported during the mutiny. For their participation in this curious affair roughly 20 British officers from throughout the Madras Presidency were court-martialed or dismissed from the service. Most of those dismissed were later permitted to rejoin. McInstosh and Aiskill were cashiered with no hope of being reinstated later and the men they led were ordered back to Chitradurga. [Macintosh and Aiskill should have been hung. They were responsible for giving unlawful orders that resulted in the death or wounding of more than 300 men under their command.]
Chitradurga’s role in the White Mutiny reflected poorly on the station’s British officers. The second scandal painted some of its British and Indian officers in an even worse light. In 1811, Asst. Surgeon Macdonald and Lt. Harkness, both of the 2/13th N. I. at Chitradurga, grew concerned that their commanding officer Major Arthur Frith, the Vakil, the Native Adjutant Chandu, and Subedar Ramaswamy might be involved in schemes to sell promotions in rank to the men of the battalion, to extort money from the baker who made bread for the garrison, and to misappropriate hospital funds. Macdonald and Harkness’s clumsy efforts to gather evidence to verify their suspicions attracted the attention of the scheme’s co-conspirators and, after trying several unsuccessful ploys to silence them, Frith demanded their court martial. Both men were found guilty of a long list of charges brought by Frith, including such trivial things as having not properly saluted the commanding officer on a field day of the corps (Macdonald mistakenly saluted a different officer) and Harkness quitting his quarters while sick (he went to talk with Macdonald). Both men were dismissed from the service, although Harkness was later permitted to rejoin.
More than two centuries later, as one reads the transcripts of the court-martial proceedings (Harkness 1814; Macdonald 1814), which the two would-be whistleblowers privately published in London, their suspicions sound credible enough to warrant serious investigation. Something was not right in the 2/13th N. I. The testimony of many witnesses directly or indirectly raised questions about the veracity of Frith and his friends. A Subedar of the 2/13th N. I. even recited in testimony what he believed to be the current price list for promotion to different ranks. Macdonald also drew attention to the fact that Major Frith had appointed Lt. Ferns, his brother, to command all four companies of the 2nd battalion, a highly irregular decision that, as Macdonald explained, conveniently served to suppress any complaints about the sale of promotions from moving up the chain of command. None of these and other suspicious irregularities were addressed by the court as Frith was not the object of the court-martial. Nevertheless, something criminal was clearly going on in the 2/13th N. I. at Chitradurga and it was not good. If Major Frith, the Vakil, the Native Adjutant Chandu, and Subedar Ramaswamy were involved in these crimes, then they got away with it and the Madras Army lost two good officers for the sake of keeping some rotten ones.
Beginning around 1811, troop strength was reduced at Chitradurga and other northern Mysore forts to meet army needs elsewhere in the Presidency. The fort was kept at minimal strength until the build-up began in preparation for the Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817-1819). This war broke Maratha power and left the British paramount in the South. The strategic justification for defending northern Mysore removed, the British eventually decided to pull out of Chitradurga entirely, sell off its public buildings, and return the fort to Mysore, a process that concluded around 1831.
In sum, most of the British who lived and died at Chitradurga were either nameless captives, mercenaries in the late eighteenth century, or soldiers in the early nineteenth century. The mercenaries and captives were there because the city and its fort were important to Tipu Sultan and the place was big enough to hold a lot of prisoners. The British soldiers who came later had little interest in Chitradurga except in reference to the Marathas. They were there because of the real or imagined threat that the Marathas posed to British interests in Mysore and the Madras Presidency. When that threat went away, so did the British.
Additional Reading
Archaeological Survey of India. 2003. Chitradurga Fort. Bangalore: Archaeological Survey of India, Bangalore Circle.
Cardew, Alexander Gordon. 1929. The White Mutiny, a Forgotten Episode in the History of the Indian Army. London: Constable.
Dodwell, Edward, and James Samuel Miles, eds. 1838. Alphabetical List of the Officers of the Indian Army: With the Dates of Their Respective Promotion, Retirement, Resignation, Or Death, Whether in India Or in Europe, from the Year 1760 to the Year 1834 Inclusive, Corrected to September 30, 1837. London: Longman, Orme, Brown.
Harkness, Henry Drury. 1814. Minutes of the Proceedings of a General Court Martial, Holden at Bangalore, on the 13th July, 1812, on Lieutenant H. Harkness. London: Black, Parry & Co.
Lewis, Barry. 2006. Chitradurga in the Early 1800s: Archaeological Interpretations of Colonial Drawings. 6. Bangalore: Indian Council of Historical Research, Southern Regional Centre.
———. 2012. “British Assessments of Tipu Sultan’s Hill Forts in Northern Mysore, South India, 1802.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 16 (1): 164–98.
Lindsay, John. 1849. “Journal of an Imprisonment in Seringapatam.” In Lives of the Lindsays; or, A Memoir of the Houses of Crawford and Balcarres, edited by Lord Lindsay, 3:261–328. London: John Murray.
Macdonald, Charles. 1814. Minutes of the Proceedings of a General Court Martial, Holden at Bangalore, on the 9th of March, 1812, on Mr. Assistant Surgeon Macdonald. London: Black, Parry & Co.
Oakes, Henry. 1785. An Authentic Narrative of the Treatment of the English, Who Were Taken Prisoners on the Reduction of Bednore by Tippoo Saib. London: G. Kearsley.
Scurry, James. 1824. The Captivity, Sufferings, and Escape of James Scurry, Who Was Detained a Prisoner during Ten Years, in the Dominions of Hyder Ali and Tippoo Saib. London: H. Fisher.
Seton-Karr, W. S., (ed). 1865. “[Drake’s Captivity in Mysore].” In Selections from Calcutta Gazettes, 2:311–16. Calcutta: O. T. Cutter, Military Orphan Press.
The Times. 1792. “Treatment Of The British Prisoners By Tippoo.” April 10, 1792. The Times Digital Archive.
Weller, Jac. 1993. Wellington in India. London: Greenhill Books.
Wilson, William John. 1882. History of the Madras Army. Vol. 3. 5 vols. Madras: Government Press.