The Lawrence Brothers, Sir Henry and Sir John, no matter what their official positions in the East India Company might have been, were tax extorters. They did not have careers in India because of the good they were doing for the Indians, they were in it for themselves!
Although a substantial part of my Blog is devoted to Sir Henry Lawrence, his brother Sir John was also an enthusiastic tax extorter as the following snippet from the book The Punjab Chiefs: Historical and Biographical Notices of the Principal Families in the Territories Under the Punjab Government and was written by Sir Lepel Henry Griffin, a British colonial administrator, and first published in 1865.
The collection of revenue was, naturally enough, resented. Englishmen are not yet educated to a cheerful acquiescence in this respect, though taxes may not be demanded at the bayonet’s point. In the old days, the men of Paniput would pay whenever their rulers were strong enough to enforce payment, and unless force was brought to bear, they could see no adequate reason for the sacrifice.
The new collector resolved to make the attempt to do without the employment of force except in a passive sense. One night he and his police surrounded a walled village whose inhabitants had persistently refused to pay.
At dawn the village lads began to drive the cattle to the pastures, and were turned back with the news that Larens Sahib could not allow their cows to graze on the government’s pastures until the land-tax was paid. Nothing further was done ; the police squatted on the tracks leading from the village, and smoked and discussed the new sahib and his curious ways, and wondered if the village would give in.
The village elders were astounded; under the old rulers, there had been no lack of variety in the methods of collecting the revenue, but they hardly knew what to think of this new move. Attempts were made to break the cordon by stealth, but the police were alert. They had to be alert for Jan Larens was close at hand. Then the cattle began to complain, and at length a deputation came forth with humility, protesting their sorrow in that they had no ready cash wherewith to pay and profuse in assurances for the future if only the Protector of the Poor would permit their cattle to graze. Talk was unavailing, so in the early afternoon the arrears were paid and the cattle released. The lesson served for all the villages of that district and there was no further trouble.
A certain landholder refused to pay his taxes and the collector-magistrate rode thirty miles in order to persuade him. The place was walled, the gates were barred, and the Englishman could not enter. He had with him an orderly whom he despatched to Delhi with a request for the guns. Then, though it was the hottest season of the year, he sat down alone by the main gate, where he stayed all day in the glare of the sun, while the chieftain cursed him in his heart and was yet afraid to strike though the alien was at his mercy. Still no help came.
At last the head of a neighbouring village offered his assistance. It was accepted; the ally’s retainers formed up before the gates, and the disciple of Pistol, seeing that the bull-dog sahib would not be shaken off, gave in, paid the land-tax and a fine into the bargain, and, in all probability, became a crony of the collector-sahib.
As for the ally, more than twenty years later, when Delhi had fallen by the exertions of Sir John Lawrence, a list of rebel leaders condemned to death was given him to sign. Glancing over the names he was attracted by that of the man who had thus come to his aid, and that rebel’s life was saved.
Notes from Jitu: Sir John Lawrence’s “Iron Hand”: His policies were famously rigid—he once wrote, “If you are mild, the Punjabee will think you are weak”
Among methods used to collect taxes under Sir John’s aegis:
- Cattle Impoundment: Seizing livestock (a vital economic asset) was standard. Griffin’s account highlights this—families paid only when their starving animals “began to complain.”
- Destruction of Crops/Homes: Defaulters’ fields or houses were sometimes burned or occupied by troops.
- Collective punishment and torture: Whole villages were punished when even a single villager failed to pay. Torture for defaulters was also very common, one method being locking up in a tiny metal cage and exposed to the burning son!
- Debt Imprisonment: Colonial India did jail debtors.