Equipping Leviathan: Ordnance factories of British India, 1859-1913

War in History

Volumn 10, Issue 4, 2003, Pages 398-423

  Roy, Kaushik ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 67650983245     PISSN: 09683445     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1191/0968344503wh278oa     Document Type: Review

References (152)

1. Major-General J. F. C. Fuller, Armament and History: The Influence of Armament on History from the Dawn of Classical Warfare to the end of the Second World War (1945; reprint, New York, 1998), p. 31.
2. The dominant historiographical trend, as represented by scholars from Stephen P. Cohen to David Omissi, emphasizes the social history of the British-Indian army: S. P. Cohen, The Indian Army: Its Contribution to the Development of a Nation (1971; reprint, New Delhi, 1991);
3. D. Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj: The Indian Army, 1860-1940 (London, Basingstoke, 1994).
4. In recent times the focus has shifted to frontier warfare. Two scholars, T. R. Moreman and Alan Warren, who study the activities of the army in India on the north-west frontier, focus on the limitations of army weapons in the guerrilla warfare waged by the frontier tribes: T. R. Moreman, The Army in India and the Development of Frontier Warfare: 1849-1947 (London, Basingstoke, 1998);
5. A. Warren, Waziristan, the Faqir of Ipi and the Indian Army: The North West Frontier Revolt of 1936-37 (Karachi, 2000).
6. Minutes of evidence before the select committee on the affairs of the East India Company with appendices and indices, 1831-32, Parliamentary Papers, East India Company Affairs, Colonies, Irish University Press series (henceforth PP, 1831-2), vol. V, appendix A, para. 720, p. 85.
7. Major-General B. P. Hughes, 'Siege Artillery in the 19th Century', Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research (hereafter JSAHR), LX (1982), 146-49;
8. P. J. O. Taylor, ed. , A Companion to the 'Indian Mutiny' of 1857 (New Delhi, 1996), pp. 20, 98-100, 116, 198-99;
9. W. Baumgart, The Crimean War: 1853-1856 (London, 1994), p. 79.
10. D. R. Headrick, The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (New York, Oxford, 1981), pp. 96-104, 115-24.
11. R. A. Preston and S. F. Wise, Men in Arms: A History of Warfare and its Interrelationships with Western Society (1956; reprint, New York, 1979), p. 243.
12. Major-General J. F. C. Fuller, The Conduct of War, 1789-1961: A Study of the Impact of the French, Industrial, and Russian Revolutions on War and its Conduct (1961; reprint, London, 1979), pp. 86-94, 113-30, 134-38;
13. G. Wawro, The Austro-Prussian War: Austria's War with Prussia and Italy in 1866 (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 10-12.
14. The phrase is from John Keegan's The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme (1976; reprint, Middlesex, 1978).
15. H. Strachan, European Armies and the Conduct of War (1983; reprint, London, New York, 1993), p. 119.
16. Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the Organization of the Indian Army together with the Minutes of Evidence, Cd 2515 (London, 1859), pp. 29, 31-32, 38-39, 46-47;
17. Report of Major General H. Hancock on the Organization of the Indian Army, Cd 2516 (London, 1859), pp. 18, 21, 26-27, National Archives of India (henceforth NAI), New Delhi.
18. P. J. O. Taylor, What Really Happened during the Mutiny: A Day-by-Day Account of the Major Events of 1857-1859 in India (Delhi, 1997), p. 50.
19. S. L. Menezes, Fidelity and Honour: The Indian Army from the Seventeenth to the Twenty-First Century (New Delhi, 1993), pp. 193-94;
20. P. G. Fredericks, The Sepoy and the Cossacks (London, 1972);
21. Field Marshal Roberts, Forty-One Years In India: From Subaltern to Commander-in-Chief (1897; reprint, London, 1898), pp. 231-34, 499, 503, 505, 530-35;
22. John Brodrick, secretary of state, to Kitchener, 25 April 1904;
23. Curzon, viceroy of India, to Kitchener, 21 Aug. 1900;
24. Roberts to Kitchener, 27 March 1903, 13 April 1904, Kitchener papers, reel no. 2, M/F, NAI.
25. C. A. L. Graham, The History of the Indian Mountain Artillery (Aldershot, 1957), pp. 20-29;
26. To the Marquess of Crewe, Simla, letter no. 61, para. 2, 14 May 1914, despatch to the secretary of state for India, Military Department, NAI.
27. G. MacMunn, Vignettes from Indian Wars (1901; reprint, Delhi, 1993), pp. 185-90.
28. Colonel H. D. Hutchinson, The Campaign in Tirah: 1897-98 (London, 1898), pp. 25-28, 101-03, 179-81.
29. Colonel L. W. Shakespear, History of the 2nd King Edward's Own Goorkhas (The Sirmoor Rifle Regiment): 1911-21, II (Aldershot, 1924), pp. 1-8.
30. G. J. Younghusband, Indian Frontier Warfare (1898; reprint, New Delhi, 1985), pp. 171-73;
31. Brigadier R. C. Butalia, The Evolution of Artillery in India: From the Battle of Plassey to the Revolt of 1857 (New Delhi, 1998), p. 224;
32. P. J. Haythornwaite, The Colonial Wars Source Book (1995; reprint, London, 2000), p. 39.
33. Younghusband, Indian Frontier Warfare, p. 171.
34. To the governor general of India, letter no. 41, London, 16 Feb. 1888, military letters from the secretary of state for India (hereafter Military Letters), NAI.
35. Lieutenant E. W. Cotter, 'Development of Field Artillery', Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers VI (1881), appendix A, p. 96;
36. General F. Roberts to General Shadwell, United Service Club, London, letter no. LIX, 8 Oct. 1883, in General F. Roberts, Correspondence with England while Commander-in-Chief in Madras, 1881-1885, II (Simla, 1890), p. 116;
37. L/MIL/17/5/1615, part 2, India Series, Oriental and India Office Collections (hereafter OIOC), British Library (henceforth BL), London.
38. The Army in India and its Evolution including an Account of the Establishment of the Royal Air Force in India (1924; reprint, New Delhi, 1985), p. 69;
39. Extracts from the Annual Report of the President, Ordnance Committee for the Year 1896 (London, 1897), pp. 13, 30, 32, 34, 43, author's private collection.
40. K. M. L. Saxena, The Military System of India: 1850-1900 (New Delhi, 1974), p. 190.
41. Proceedings of the Army in India Committee, vol. I-A, Minority Report (Simla, 1913), p. 156;
42. K. M. L. Saxena, The Military System of India: 1900-1939 (New Delhi, 1999), pp. 2-3, 61;
43. T. A. Heathcote, 'The Army of British India', in D. Chandler and I. Beckett, eds, The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Army (Oxford, New York, 1994), p. 392;
44. General F. Roberts, Short Report on Important Questions Dealt with during the Tenure of Commander of Army in India, 1885-1893 (Simla, 1893), p. 8, L/MIL/17/5/1613, OIOC, BL.
45. Lieutenant-Colonel B. N. Majumdar, History of the Army Service Corps: 1858-1913, II (New Delhi, 1976), pp. 13-15.
46. Major-General C. B. Brackenbury, Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers XV (1889), pp. 135-45.
47. M. van Creveld, Technology and War: From 2000 B. C. to the Present (London, 1991), pp. 143-44, 175, 297.
48. B. Awe, 'Militarism and Economic Development in Nineteenth Century Yoruba Country: The Ibadan Example', Journal of African History XIV (1973), pp. 65-77;
49. D. R. Mohanty, 'Defence Industry Conversion in China', Strategic Analysis XXII (1999), p. 1836.
50. Between 1800 and 1900 the population of India rose from 200 million to 417 million: M. D. Morris, 'The Growth of Large Scale Industry to 1947', in D. Kumar, ed. , The Cambridge Economic History of India: c. 1757-c. 1970, II (1982; reprint, New Delhi, 1991), p. 554.
51. J. A. Lynn, 'Modern Introduction', in Feeding Mars: Logistics in Western Warfare from the Middle Ages to the Present, ed. J. A. Lynn (Boulder, CO, 1993), pp. 186-87.
52. S. Das et al. , Fort William: A Historical Perspective (Calcutta, 1996), pp. 51-52.
53. V. B. Priyani, The Fundamental Principles of Road Engineering (1956; reprint, Allahabad, 1958), p. 8;
54. D. Boyd, The Royal Engineers, ed. Lieutenant-General B. Horrocks (1973; reprint, London, 1975), p. 46;
55. Minute on the manufactories and defensive works of Kirkee, Jan. 1866, Railway Sidings Kirkee, notes by Napier, 14 Jan. 1869, notes and minutes by Lord Napier of Magdala, Napier Collection, MSS EUR. F. 114, 1C, OIOC, BL.
56. Das, Fort William, p. 52.
57. Army in India and its Evolution, pp. 134-36;
58. B. Robson, 'The Eden Commission and the Reform of the Indian Army: 1879-1895', JSAHR LX (1982), pp. 5-7, 13.
59. Report by Major-General Frank Turner, inspector-general of ordnance, Bengal presidency, 28 April 1874, Appendices to the Report of the Special Ordnance Commission Appointed by the Order of the Government of India to Enquire into the System of Ordnance supply in India (Calcutta, 1875) (hereafter AOC, 1875), p. 248, Central Secretariat Library, New Delhi.
60. File no. 9, 1 March 1907, Governor General's Orders, Military Supply (hereafter GGOMS), NAI.
61. Field Artillery Carriages, Ordnance Department, Annual Report, 1864-65 (hereafter ODAR, 1864-5), paras 287, 290, NAI.
62. Minute no. 63,127, 11 Oct. 1907, Proceedings of the Ordnance Committee, 1907, (hereafter POC, 1907), Cossipore Gun and Shell Factory Library (henceforth CGSFL), Calcutta.
63. T. A. Heathcote, The Indian Army: The Garrison of British Imperial India, 1822-1922 (Newton Abbot, 1974), p. 46;
64. Lieutenant-Colonel R. Simon, History of the Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, I (New Delhi, 1977), pp. 34, 342, appendix I;
65. B. Robson, ed. , Roberts in India: The Military Papers of Field Marshal Lord Roberts, 1876- 1893 (Stroud, Gloucestershire, 1993), pp. 279-83;
66. On the desirability of having a more powerful armament than the 7 pounder jointed guns for the mountain batteries in India, Bangalore, Head Quarter of the Madras Army, no. LXIV, 22 July 1883, in General F. Roberts, Correspondence with India while Commander-in-Chief in Madras, 1881-1885, III (Simla, 1890), p. 90, L/MIL/17/5/1615, part 3, OIOC, BL.
67. Supplement to the Annual Statement of Manufactures and Repairs in Arsenals and Depots: Northern and Southern Circles (Ferozepore Arsenal), 1908-1909 (Calcutta, 1910) (hereafter Ferozepore Arsenal), CGSFL, pp. 1-2, 4, 8-11, 14-15.
68. Roberts's letter to the viceroy, Ambala, 8 Jan. 1892, in General F. Roberts, Correspondence with the Viceroy of India (The Marquess of Lansdowne), 26 Nov. 1888-2 April 1893, V (Calcutta, 1893), p. 142, L/MIL/17/5/1615, part 5, OIOC, BL. The 5. 5 inch and 4. 6 inch brass mortars were part of the mule siege train and consisted of several jointed parts which could be unpacked and carried on the back of the mules.
69. Ferozepore Arsenal, pp. 2, 15, 56, 58.
70. Report by the ordnance consulting officer for India, minute no. 63331, 28 Nov. 1907, POC, 1907.
71. Minute 7750, 10 Jan. 1913, Proceedings of the Ordnance Board, 1913 (hereafter POB, 1913), CGSFL.
72. Report by the ordnance consulting officer for India, minute 7823, 6 Feb. 1913, POB, 1913;
73. M. Baldwin, 'Arming the Indian Army: 1857-1947', in A. J. Guy and P. B. Boyden, eds, Soldiers of the Raj: The Indian Army (London, 1997), p. 158.
74. Statement of Machinery in Use in the Gun and Shell factory, Cossipore, including Ishapore Branch, on 1st March 1909 (Calcutta, n. d. ), pp. 4-5, 96-97. This account was published between March 1909 and November 1910, because the superintendent of Cossipore received it in the CGSFL on November 1910.
75. The quotation is from para. 8 of letter no. 8, 12 Jan. 1888, Military Letters. India at that time was one of the largest rice-producing countries in the world.
76. Letter no. 60, London, 29 Feb. 1888, Military Letters.
77. Minute 63070, 1 Oct. 1907, POC, 1907.
78. S. Bose, 'Introduction: Beyond the General and the Particular', in South Asia and World Capitalism, ed. S. Bose (Delhi, 1990), pp. 10-11.
79. J. D. Scott, Vickers: A History (London, 1962), p. 34;
80. B. R. Tomlinson, The Political Economy of the Raj, 1914-1947: The Economics of Decolonization in India (London, 1979), pp. 1-2;
81. B. Bond, War and Society in Europe: 1870-1970 (1984; reprint, Thrupp, 1998), p. 44.
82. While the firms had economic interests, the War Office was probably influenced by an attempt to exercise political power over the British establishment in India. For a historical examination of the concept that possession of superior hardware enables an organizational entity to pursue power, see W. McNeill, The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A. D. 1000 (Chicago, 1982).
83. Major D. H. Cole and Major E. C. Priestley, An Outline of British Military History: 1660-1937 (London, 1937), p. 435.
84. E. Yorke, 'Isandlwana', in J. Pimlott, ed. , The Hutchinson Atlas of Battle Plans: Before and After (Oxford, 1998), p. 168.
85. Letters 15 and 24, London, 19 Jan. and 2 Feb. 1888, Military Letters.
86. P. Warner, Firepower: From Slings to Star Wars (1988; reprint, London, 1989), p. 56.
87. Letter no. 43, London, 23 Feb. 1888, Military Letters; T. R. Moreman, 'The Arms Trade and the North-West Frontier Pathan Tribes, 1890-1914', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History XXII (1994), pp. 190-91.
88. Enclosure no. 2 by director general of stores, 4 Jan. 1888, attached with letter no. 43, Military Letters.
89. Enclosure no. 3 by Ralph Thomas, undersecretary of state for India, 1 Feb. 1888, attached with letter no. 43, Military Letters.
90. Paras 345-47, 350, 352, 354-56, ODAR, 1864-5;
91. J. Black, War and the World: Military Power and the Fate of Continents, 1450-2000 (1998; reprint, New Haven and London, 2000), pp. 174-75.
92. Report by the ordnance consulting officer for India, minute no. 63330, 28 Nov. 1907, POC, 1907.
93. Letter no. 7, 12 Jan. 1888, Military Letters.
94. The quotation is from paras 1-2 of letter no. 7, 12 Jan. 1888, Military Letters.
95. Para. 3, letter no. 7, 12 Jan. 1888, Military Letters.
96. Para. 9, letter no. 14, and para 13, letter no. 44, 19 Jan. and 23 Feb. 1888, Military Letters.
97. Paras 16 and 21, despatch no. 10264, letter no. 44, 19 Jan. 1888; Letter no. 45, London, 23 Feb. 1888, Military Letters.
98. Para. 11, letter no. 44, 23 Feb. 1888, Military Letters.
99. Para. 18, letter no. 14, 19 Jan. 1888, Military Letters.
100. Letter no. 45, 23 Feb. 1888, Military Letters.
101. Letter no. 41, 16 Feb. 1888, Military Letters.
102. Financial Review of the Operations of the Ordnance Department, Bengal and Punjab Commands for the Year 1897-98 (Calcutta, 1898), p. 4, CGSFL.
103. D. Kumar, 'The Fiscal System', in Kumar, Cambridge Economic History, pp. 915-16;
104. A. K. Bagchi, The Political Economy of Underdevelopment (1982; reprint, Delhi, 1989), pp. 89-90;
105. R. K. Ray, Industrialization in India: Growth and Conflict in the Private Corporate Sector, 1914-47 (1979; reprint, Delhi, 1985), p. 2.
106. A. K. Bagchi, Private Investment in India: 1900-1939 (1972; reprint, New Delhi, 1989), p. 3.
107. There is a debate regarding deindustrialization between the Liberal Marxists such as Bipan Chandra and the neoclassical economic historians. Chandra argues that to prevent British industry from facing competition in the Indian market, the GOI followed a deliberate policy of destroying Indian industry. Thus India instead of being a producer of industrial goods became a producer of primary products and this resulted in a drain of wealth from India to the metropole. For the drain of wealth theory see B. Chandra, The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism in India: Economic Policies of Indian National Leadership, 1880-1905 (1966; reprint, New Delhi, 1991), pp. 636-708. On the other hand the neoclassical scholars argue that, because of inadequate technological infrastructure in India, the GOI followed a policy of encouraging agro-based industry rather than attempting to set up heavy industry which was bound to be uneconomical.
108. See J. Matson, 'Deindustrialization or Peripheralization? The Case of Cotton Textiles in India, 1750-1950', in S. Bose, South Asia, pp. 210-14.
109. S. Bose, in 'The World Economy and Regional Economies in South Asia: Some Comments on Linkages', op. cit, pp. 357-60, writes that the British Empire integrated the agrarian Indian economy with the capitalist world economy, and the flow of foreign capital raised the productivity of the traditional agrarian sector. Regardless of one's position in this debate, the fact is that the absence of a metallurgical and engineering industry in India created bottlenecks for expanding arms production.
110. L. Sundaram, India's Armies and their Costs (Bombay, 1946), pp. 54-55, 57. The armed forces consumed about 46% of the GOI's income.
111. J. Krishnamurty, 'The Occupational Structure', and Morris, 'Growth of Large Scale Industry', in Kumar, Cambridge Economic History, pp. 533-35, 555.
112. From Lieutenant Colonel H. T. Kenny, departmental secy. to the GOI, to the inspector general of ordnance factories in India, prog. no. 253, Proceedings of the Department of Military Supply (hereafter PDMS), NAI.
113. File no. 9, 1 March 1907, GGOMS, 1907.
114. Progs 539-41, PDMS, Jan. 1909.
115. Para. 22, letter no. 44, 23 Feb. 1888, Military Letters.
116. Personnel for the Ishapore Rifle Factory, prog. no. 253, 20 April 1906, PDMS.
117. Prog. no. 253, PDMS, Jan. 1909.
118. Progs 446-49, PDMS, Jan. 1909.
119. From Major-General R. H. Mahon, Royal Artillery, director general of ordnance in India, to the secy. to the GOI, Dept. of Military Supply; From the secy. to the GOI, Dept. of Military Supply, to the director general of ordnance in India, progs 554-55, Simla, 2 Aug. and 5 Oct. 1906, PDMS, Jan. 1909.
120. Enclosure no. 47 to prog. no. 560, Simla, PDMS.
121. Mahon to the Secy, to the GOI, progs 554, 558, 2 Aug. 1906 and 16 Jan. 1907; Enclosure no. 47 to prog. no. 560, Simla, 16 July 1908, Calcutta, PDMS, Jan. 1909.
122. Mahon to the Secy, to the GOI, prog. no. 554, 2 Aug. 1906, PDMS, Jan. 1909.
123. Para. 14, despatch no. 10032, London, 19 Jan. 1888, Military Letters;
124. Cotter, 'Development of Field Artillery', p. 95.
125. C. Barnett, Britain and Her Army, 1509-1970: A Military, Political and Social Survey (London, 1970), p. 342.
126. Paras 324-26, 328, 330, 333-34, 341, 344, ODAR, 1864-5.
127. M. Howard, The Franco-Prussian War: The German Invasion of France, 1870-1871 (1961; reprint, London, 1979), pp. 5-6;
128. paras 336-37, ODAR, 1864-5.
129. The quotation is from para. 338, ODAR, 1864-5.
130. Howard, Franco-Prussian War, footnote 2, pp. 5-6;
131. Colonel T. N. Dupuy, The Evolution of Weapons and Warfare (1984; reprint, New York, 1990), p. 192.
132. E. Spiers, 'The Late Victorian Army: 1868-1914', in Chandler and Beckett, Oxford Illustrated History, p. 199.
133. Para. 6, letter no. 15, 19 Jan. 1888, Military Letters.
134. Enclosure no. 3 by Major R. Wace, military secy. at the India Office, London, 21 Nov. 1887, and enclosure no. 5 by Major James Colouhan, ordnance consulting officer for India, Blackheath, 25 Feb. 1888, attached with letter no. 94, Military Letters.
135. Report by the ordnance consulting officer for India, minute 7812, 6 Feb. 1913, POB, 1913.
136. Minute 63430, 21 Dec. 1907, POC, 1907.
137. Report by the ordnance consulting officer for India, 23 Jan. 1913, POB, 1913.
138. History of the Indian Ordnance and Clothing Factories (Simla, 1938), p. 124.
139. Report by the ordnance consulting officer for India, minute 8053, 2 April 1913, POB, 1913.
140. AOC, 1875, appendix E, Foundry and Shell Factory, p. 324.
141. S. Bidwell and D. Graham, Fire-Power: British Army Weapons and Theories of War, 1904-1945 (1982; reprint, Boston, 1985), pp. 8-9.
142. D. G. Hermann, The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War (1996; reprint, Princeton, 1997), p. 19;
143. E. M. Spiers, 'Rearming the Edwardian Artillery', JSAHR LVII (1979), 167-68.
144. Minute 63 067, 1 Oct. 1907, POC, 1907.
145. Simon, History of the Corps, appendix I, pp. 342-43.
146. Abstract of papers received and considered by the commission as regards the Foundry and Shell Factory, AOC, 1875, appendix E, p. 324.
147. Statement of Expenditures incurred on Orders during 1913-14 and Statement of Departmental Production Charged to Capital, Stock and Other Factories during 1913-14 (Calcutta, 1915), pp. 66-69, CGSFL;
148. enclosure 3A, 3B, Military Department Proceedings, 23 April 1860, NAI.
149. Secret note by E. H. E. Collen, 1Q/26, 7 July 1896, George White Collection, MSS. EUR. F. 108/24, OIOC, BL.
150. Administration of the Army in India, note by Kitchener, 1T/75, 1 Jan. 1905, White Collection, MSS. EUR. F. 108/87-88, OIOC, BL.
151. For the fire-power deficiency of the Indian Corps see G. Corrigan, Sepoys in the Trenches: The Indian Corps on the Western Front, 1914-1915 (Staplehurst, 1999), pp. 24-26, 40-41, 91-93, 166.
152. For the GOI's problems as regards production of munitions and arms even before the Indian Expeditionary Corps was engaged against the German army, see Letters to the marquess of Crewe, nos. 41 and 61, 26 March and 14 May 1914, despatch to the secretary of state for India.