THE PERIOD OF COLONIAL RULEConsequently, the functions of Fort William College were reduced to those
of a language school and the directors put up their own college in England.
If a candidate failed there he would not be sent to India; the director who
had recommended him, however, could suggest another name. Haileybury
had quite a distinguished staff of professors, among them Thomas
Malthus, whose ideas on political economy influenced many civil servants.
The number of students was small and the college could not suddenly
expand when more civil servants were needed after 1826, due to the
acquisition of large territories. The East India Company then established a
committee in London to hold competitive exams; finally, in 1853, the
company stopped enrolling new students at Haileybury College and
introduced freely accessible competitive exams for all posts. It so happened
that the last class graduated at Haileybury just a few months before the
company lost its mandate due to the Mutiny of 1857.
The Mutiny of 1857The uprising in northern India which terminated the existence of the East
India Company almost put an end to British rule in India. While radical
Indian nationalists later referred to this uprising as the ‘First Indian War of
Independence’, the British called it the ‘Mutiny’ because the Indian soldiers
who had helped them to conquer India had turned against them. But this
revolt of 1857 was neither a national war of independence nor simply a
mutiny. It spread over much of northern India and affected many strata of
the population. The new educated elite did not participate in it for fear of
the chaos or restoration of the old order it might bring. The people who
led this uprising had no use for English-educated gentlemen. Apart from
the soldiers, the rebels were mostly disgruntled landlords and peasants, and
some disinherited princes. The aged Great Mughal in Delhi and the heir of
the last Peshwa—forced by the British to stay in Kanpur, northern India,
far from his old base at Pune—emerged as the key figures around whom
the rebels rallied. The insurgents were not aimless marauders: they did
fight for a cause, but this cause was hopeless because the restoration of the
old order which they had in mind was impossible. The lack of leadership
and coordination among the rebels was only a reflection of this deeper
problem.
Nevertheless, the rebels managed to continue their struggle for quite
some time. The British had no contingency plan for such a revolt, and were
completely taken by surprise and slow to react. The risks were high for the
British because they were, after all, fighting against people whom they
themselves had trained in the art of warfare. Even among the civilian rebels
there were dangerous elements—such as the Jats around Delhi, the
cowboys of India who were skilful horsemen and courageous fighters. The
British had alienated them by assessing their pastures as if they were