“The Skull of Alum Bheg” (Life and Death of a Rebel of 1857)

“The Skull of Alum Bheg”

(Life and Death of a Rebel of 1857)

By Kim A. Wagner, Penguin.

“I walked straight to the scattered and smoking floors before the guns. I came first to an arm, torn off above the elbow, the first clinched, the bone projecting several inches, bare. Then the ground was sown with red grisly fragments, then a black-haired head and the other arm still held together…close by lay the lower half of the body of the next, torn quite in two, and long coils of entrails twined on the ground. Then a long cloth in which one has been dressed rolled open like a floor cloth and on fire. One man lay in a complete and shattered heap, all but the arms; the legs were straddled wide apart, and the smashed body on the middle of them; the spine exposed; the head lay close by, too. The last body was that of a native officer, who was the arch fiend of the mutiny; he was a short man, with a cruel face. His had been cut clean off, but the muscles of the neck and contracted round the throat like a frill. His face was half upturned and calm, the eyes shut. I saw no expression of pain on any of them. What had been his body lay on its face, the legs as usual not shattered, but all the flesh torn like cloth from a sharp angle in the hollow on the back, off and off, till it merged in one mangled heap…The troops immediately marched off, and I rode home at speed, and when I dismounted the dogs came and licked my feet”

‘An Execution in India’ 

published in The Times 3^rd December 1857

 (Scene of Canon Execution in British India of rebels reproduced by Wagner)

Kim A. Wagner has written this book on a human skull which was discovered in 1963 in a pub in England with an introduction about the name and rank of the Indian soldier written on an old paper folded and inserted in the eye-socket of his skull. It described him as under-

“Skull of Havildar Alum Bheg, 46^th Regt. Bengal N. Infantry who was blown away from a gun…He was a principal leader in the mutiny of 1857 & of a most ruffianly disposition…Alum Bheg was about 32 years of age; 5 feet 7 ½ inches high and by no means an ill looking native.”

This is the story of Alum Bheg, who was a soldier of mutiny (for British) and first war of independence (for Indians) in 1857 and of Caption A.R.Costello (Capt. 7^th Drag. Guards), who was on duty when Alum Bheg was blown by canon and who took his skull as a trophy to Ireland. Records by his name could never be found by the author but his guess is that Alum Bheg was a sunni Muslim and recruited from Cownpore where 46^th Bengal Native Infantry was raised.

46^th Bengal Native Infantry Regiment (46th BNI) revolted on 9^th July 1857 in Sialkot (Pakistan). Author never found any record of any soldier named Alum Bheg despite his massive search of the records of executions. Only three names of that regiment at Sialkot survives today and they are of course of the three non-commissioned officers who remained loyal to British. Such was the resolve of the rulers then and apathy of government now that not even names of the soldiers of the first war of independence survive except the ones who remained loyal to the British. The author of this book in its introduction itself makes it clear that ‘mindless empire - bashing’ as well as ‘empire-nostalgia’ both make poor history and his purpose for writing is to have a more ‘critical and nuanced-understanding of the past’.

A completely new perspective of the reasons of revolt of 1857 have been listed by Wagner. Not many remember that prior to 1857 mutiny, there was a preliminary round also, which happened in 1824 as Barrackpore Mutiny when the Bengal army was disarmed and this initiated a perpetual fear among the sepoys of being disarmed again. Another reason Wagner mentions is that by the early nineteenth century ‘high caste’ status of the British army was being demolished by the British themselves. Then General Order of 1834 was passed to enlist non-high caste Hindus and Muslims into army in order to break the high–caste monopoly of the Bengal Army. General Enlistment Order of 1856 mandated overseas services for new recruits, which also created fear in already serving older soldiers that sooner or later they may also be asked to serve overseas which was a taboo in high-caste Hindus. Apart from seniority determination and low payments, annexation of Awadh in 1856 when the British dethroned the King of Awadh on the pretext of misrule, broke the patience of soldiers like Alum Bheg. Awadh was the native country for majority of recruits in Bengal Native Infantry. Annexation of Awadh, perhaps for the first time introduced a sense of disloyalty to the country in the men like Alum Bheg and they started looking at the British as enemies of ‘their country’. Introduction of common messing in the colonial jails in 1840s. Removal of prisoner’s brass vessel the lota necessary to maintain purity, hit hard on the high caste inmates and in turn created fear among the sepoys too. Social ostracizing of the soldiers returning from defeat and disgrace in Afghan War in 1842 are the reasons listed for revolt by the Wagner.  

With reasonable arguments, author has dismissed the ‘greased cartridge theory’. Any lawyer even if not conducting trials, can easily infer that the testimony of the then Inspector General of Ordnance, Colonel A. Abbott’s given in later proceedings, in fact seems too general to derive that cow or pig’s fat was used to grease the new Enfield rifle cartridges. As per records, no native soldier till 1857, ever used any such greased cartridge or even ever was asked to use Enfield rifle in 1857. British 60^th Regiment stationed at Meerut, having all white soldiers, was the only regiment equipped with Enfield rifle in 1857 therefore they were the only ones who could have used greased cartridges. E. Martineau during the trial of Bahadur Shah deposed categorically that ‘not even a single greased cartridge for the Enfield was even distributed to sepoys anywhere during 1857’. However Wagner accepts that greased cartridges, even in rumors, played vital role in 1857. Mangal Pandey has found mention in the records. 8^th April 1857 is the date when Mangal Pandey was executed and it was the first execution by the British for open mutiny. It was an open execution in front of all sepoys of the regiment. The Delhi Gazette published on 18 April 1857 mentions Mangal Pandey as “criminal” and also that this execution had a very disheartening effect on the regiment.

Following Maratha and Mughal tradition, blowing by canon was favored method of execution of the British before deportation to Andaman Islands was introduced as a new method of penal punishment.as it saved the hassle of last rites too. Wagner has very well portrayed the scene of execution of Alum Bheg and other native soldiers in the book as under.

 It was 10 July 1858, Saturday at 04:30 A.M, 7^th Dragoon Guards Sialkot Regiment. With sunrise, order of court martial against Alum Bheg was read over finding him guilty of committing murder of Englishmen. Alum Bheg was blown by canon. All that remained a heap of flesh with head remained intact, when Captain A. R. Costello of the 7^th Dragoon Guards, picked up the severed head of condemned Alum Bheg with blood still flowing out of it as a trophy. Head of Alum Bheg then traveled to Ireland with Captain Costello when he left India after three months of this execution However Wagner found in the end that execution of Alum Bheg was as a case of mistaken identity, executed for murders he did not commit!

Wagner concludes that displaying the head of enemy was both respectable and gentleman behavior for a colonial officer in those times. It was a tradition of British officers in that period to take back home skulls of dead soldiers killed in India. Body parts of the Indian mutineers were collected as souvenirs. Reference has also been made of the hanging of Indian rebel leader Tantia Tope in year 1859. He records the great scramble by officers to get the lock of hair from the hanging dead body of Tantia Tope. Costello was not the only soldier in English army who brought skull back home. Skull of sepoy was an easy found and available at will in British India during 1857.

We should be thankful to Wagner, for bringing Alum Bheg back into the pages of history from which he remained lost for almost more than one and half century. Wagner hopes that through this book people may be aware of the complex issue involved in searching the final resting place for Alum Bheg. 

I wonder where the skull of Alum Bheg will return, if it will ever return at all ? This is not the same country where Alum Bheg was born and died. This is not the place from where Alum Bheg left. Time has traveled and with it politics of geography has already changed. Will he return to the place he was born in India perhaps Cawnpore or will he return to Sialkot in Pakistan, where he was executed. 

Kartikey