The Chelas- Trainers

With the aim of disciplining his chelas in the European style of warfare, Haidar recruited, forcibly and otherwise, English soldiers and sepoys from his prisons. To ensure loyalty, they were converted to Islam. Whiteway writes: “Having undergone a ceremony, which might be deemed equivalent to the oath of allegiance in England, scarcely any doubt of their fidelity seems to have been entertained. . . ”.[1]

When initial inducement by brahman officials to lure them with “flattering promises of great pay, horses, palanquins, women, slaves, etc” failed, compulsion was used. On September 19, 1781, 16 soldiers were circumcised and enrolled as trainers. John Maxwell Dempster, a deserter from the Bengal artillery, was one of them. Two Englishmen, Clarke and Smith, had been circumcised three months earlier. They all went through the process: shaving of the head, swallowing a dose of majum, and circumcision. They were fed mutton and rice and given an allowance of six cash per day through the month’s recovery period, after which they were made to train the asad-i-ilahi on a salary of one gold fanam per day with provisions and clothes.[2]

 Clarke had arrived in Madras in January 1781. Falling into debt, he escaped to Pondicherry where he was arrested and sent to Haidar’s camp. On refusing an offer of Rs 300 a month if he converted and trained the chelas, he was sent to Srirangapatna along with 140 circumcised Carnatic boys.[3] Clarke was flogged at least twice for disobedience before being transferred to Scurry’s chela risala. When they were denied food for two days, Clarke represented the case of the English chelas to the qilledar. He was badly beaten and taken away in irons. Clarke ended up in Bristow’s risala in the fort of Channarayapatna, four days march from Srirangapatna on the Nagar highway. There he got into another argument with his guards and was beaten to death.[4] 

Smith had deserted from the Bengal sepoys when found guilty of a crime towards a female. He was circumcised at Srirangapatna and made a trainer. Proficient in Hindustani, Scurry identifies him as the one who first read Mathews’s plates in the kutchery. Having acquired a sufficient knowledge of medicine and surgery, Smith was appointed as a doctor in Tipu’s harem when he successfully treated one of the ladies there. There, he eloped with one of them, and lived with her in secret until her labour screams alerted the neighbours. Smith was imprisoned, the lady never seen again.

Whiteway had only kind words for Smith who trained him: “It was then my fortune to mess with Smithy, from whose hands I received kindness and parental treatment. At that time I was about fourteen, the oldest of the English boys; and, under the command of two officers, my countrymen, I was as happy as I could wish. I wanted for nothing, enjoyed good health, and was beloved by all.”[5] Smith eventually escaped in 1791 and adopted a lonely wandering life dressed as a Muslim named Booden Beg.[6]

Lieutenants James Speediman and Richard Rutledge, captured in November 1782, were incarcerated in Ganjam with nine circumcised Europeans. They too were circumcised and appointed trainers. Not long after, Speediman cut his own throat in a fit of despair on receiving a letter from his brother, the mayor of Madras. Three years later, Rutledge, an amiable character, was apprehended corresponding with the English and sent to Nandidurg where he was eventually executed.[7]

Dempster was the most unpopular of the trainers. Treated with contempt by his trainees, suspected of being an informer, and condemned as a deserter, Dempster’s isolated and ostracized life ended prematurely in his hut with a pike driven through his body by his executioners.[8] Shortly before his death, Dempster secreted a letter to the officers in their prison describing his pathetic situation: “the title of Deserter is almost insupportable to any one tinctured with the smallest atom of spirit. From the most robust as well as healthy constitution, I am totally changed into a habit that daily tells me my stay shall not be long. . . this I have writ only with the light of the fire; otherwise the seeing me occupied with pen and ink would subject me to be examined, as this town is now full of spies.”[9] 

Captured in February 1781, Bristow was invited to join Haidar’s service. On refusing, he was taken to Srirangapatna, circumcised, forced to train the chelas, and later demoted to their ranks. In retaliation, Bristow and his companions circumcised dogs, considered unclean by Muslims, and bandicoots and set them free to roam the capital.[10] In September 1790, Bristow was sent to the fort of Outradurg, situated on a steep, rocky hill covered in thick jungle. Fettered and denied provisions, he survived on the charity of sympathizers until he managed to cut through the irons binding his feet, dug a hole through the walls of his cell, and escaped into the thorny, animal-infested jungle.

On his lonely walk northward toward the Nizam’s territories on swollen, painfully injured feet through territory infested by wild animals, and Tipu’s soldiers, he survived on the help and guidance of Tipu’s Hindu subjects, especially women. He comments: “Their hospitable treatment reconciled me so much to life and the company of mankind...” Bristow eventually reached Bengal on June 11, 1791 after having spent “nine years, nine months, and twenty-two days in slavery, partly as a prisoner of war, and partly as a captive retained in defiance of faith and the law of nations.”[11]

The officers in Tipu’s prisons drew up a list of over 100 Englishmen forced into Haidar’s service in Srirangapatna. They knew little of prisoners elsewhere. In addition, a large number of East India Company sepoy prisoners, like Abdul Ghani, Dempster’s assistant and Scurry’s tormentor, had also been forcibly recruited into the service of the saltanat-i-khudadad.[12]

[1] Scurry, James. 1824. The Captivity, Sufferings and Escape of James Scurry. London. Henry Fisher: 294

[2] Thompson, William. 1788. Memoirs of the Late War in Asia etc, Vol II. London: 43, 49, 52    

[3] Thompson, William. 1788. Memoirs of the Late War in Asia etc, Vol II. London: 59-65    

[4] Bristow, James. 1793. A Narrative of the Sufferings of James Bistrow...London. J Murray: 70-72, 85

[5] Scurry, James. 1824. The Captivity, Sufferings and Escape of James Scurry. London. Henry Fisher: 348

[6] Selections from Calcutta Gazettes, 1789-1797, Vol II. Calcutta, 1865: 315

[7] Scurry, James. 1824. The Captivity, Sufferings and Escape of James Scurry. London. Henry Fisher: 284, 141

[8] Scurry, James. 1824. The Captivity, Sufferings and Escape of James Scurry. London. Henry Fisher: 107

[9] Thompson, William. 1788. Memoirs of the Late War in Asia etc, Vol II. London: 115    

[10] Bristow, James. 1793. A Narrative of the Sufferings of James Bistrow...London. J Murray: 42   

[11] Bristow, James. 1793. A Narrative of the Sufferings of James Bistrow...London. J Murray: 207

[12] Thompson, William. 1788. Memoirs of the Late War in Asia etc, Vol II. London: 120, 68