Harking back: The forgotten Baron of the Punjab

Surely the time has come for us to acknowledge every aspect of our past, irrespective of its current popularity. Lahore has reason to miss its great men and women, irrespective of whether they were foreign or not. Foreign invaders have ruled us for a healthy 859 years from the year 1021 to 1947, and this excludes the 67-year Punjabi Sikh period ending 1849. That all these invaders settled down and merged with the local population speaks volumes of the depth of our ancient culture. It also means that our current population mix has virtually every gene that is known to the human species.

This piece is about the very first British ruler who made a positive contribution to Lahore and to the Punjab. Opposite the Lahore High Court once stood a statue of John Laird Mair Lawrence which had a pen in one hand and a sword in the other. Below was written: “Will you be ruled by the pen or by the sword?” In 1947 that statue was removed and now rests in his native Ireland, for he was a distinguished citizen of a Londonderry family. Though born in Richmond in England in 1811, he rose to become the Viceroy of British India for five years starting 1864.

His father had served in India as a soldier, as did his two elder brothers Sir Henry and Sir George Lawrence. At the age of 16 he enrolled in the East India Company’s Haileybury College, winning prizes in the Bengali language, in history and in political economy. At the age of 18 he and his brother Henry came to India and there mastered Urdu and Persian at Fort William, with John being posted as the magistrate and tax collector of Delhi. From there he was transferred to Panipat.

He returned to England and when he came back he was made Civil and Sessions Judge in Delhi. In 1845 the First Anglo-Sikh War started and he was asked to assist the Army, playing a major role in the critical Battle of Sobraon. Once the battle had ended his brother Henry was made a Resident of Lahore and he was posted to Jullander and the hill States of the Punjab. There he made a name as the man who brought peace. He banned the ritual of ‘sutti’ and female infanticide. Though feared he invariably left an admiring population for his fairness and fearlessness.

Once the Second Anglo-Sikh War had ended and Company rule established in Lahore on March the 30th, 1849, a Board of Administration was established with Henry as the President and brother John Lawrence and C.G. Mansel as Members. It was in this role that he made a name for himself as a sweeping reformer. He abolished all local taxes, introduced a common currency and an efficient postal service. In the countryside he lowered Mughal-era taxes, reformed its collection and quickly built the first canals. He set into motion educational reforms, got an establishment in place to very rapidly build primary and secondary schools and colleges and universities. Within three years revenue had tripled and the State of Punjab in 1852 had a one million British pound surplus.

The Punjab had suddenly become the most prosperous State of the British Empire. This surge in profits for the Company resulted in John Lawrence concentrating on major infrastructural projects like building the highway from Lahore to Multan, extending the GT Road from Delhi to Peshawar and building the Bari Doab Canal. Suddenly Punjab’s role as the granary of the Empire was established.

Here John and his brother Henry developed major differences over policy and approach. The elder brother was against upsetting the landed gentry with new taxes and more openness, while John insisting that appeasing the landed powers was hurting both the poor and tax collection. “The rich and taxes do not go together”, he insisted. Their fight reached the corridors of power who decided to make John Lawrence the first Chief Commissioner of the Punjab on February 11, 1853.

With his brother off his back he used his powers to develop the Punjab unlike any other State of British India. He expanded education from the bottom to the top and aggressively encouraged industry. He initiated a detailed survey and research of each and every village and town of the Punjab, in the process devolving power to the village levels for rapid decision-making, yet retaining a firm grip through his Deputy Commissioners on every village through his assistants (ACs), who were ordered: “Remain on your horses in your waking hours”.

In May 1857 the Sepoy Mutiny broke out. He immediately ordered the disarming of any regiment that his intelligence informed was hostile. Others he posted to the north-west frontier and away for the main action. The more loyal he sent towards Delhi to break the back of the centre of the ‘rebellion’. In this effort he took a step to appease the Sikhs who had been deprived of their Empire. This paid in a massive way.

So with both Sikh and Muslim chiefs and big landlords he managed to keep the road from Lahore to Delhi open and the telegraph system functioning. Most important he secured Lahore and for miles around eliminated all resistance. John Lawrence proved to be a kind friend and a ruthless enemy, and to the poor he made special gestures making sure that in the period the ‘mutiny’ was on no one starved.

With Punjab and Lahore secure and with a special agreement with the Afghan rulers not to attack from the west, crushing Delhi was a top priority. On the 12th of September, 1857, just four months after the rebellion started, Delhi fell and John Lawrence was acclaimed as the ‘Saviour of India’. But now came the task of avoiding hatred, and in this John Lawrence led the effort not to seek revenge. Soldiers who had deserted were allowed back to their villages, and encouraged to take up tilling the land.

But the master stroke was to come when in February, 1858, Delhi was made part of the Punjab, which now stretched from Peshawar to Delhi and from the Kashmir Hills to Sindh. “This is the true Punjab”, he said. This huge land mass was to become the future supplier of soldiers and wheat. “Leave the fighting and the food of the British Empire to the Punjab” was his catchphrase, and he lived up to the promise.

In February 1859 John Lawrence returned to England where he was made a baron knight, was honoured with a special audience by Queen Victoria. In 1864 he was made the Viceroy of India and returned as Sir John Lawrence. On arrival back in India as the Viceroy he announced: “My task is to assist the ignored poor of this land”. His experience in the Punjab came much in handy and he set about reducing taxes and forcing his fellow Englishmen to also pay taxes. Crimes against women he crushed with a firm hand.

Lawrence returned to England and died in 1879 after serving as Viceroy for five years and was buried at Westminster Abbey, a rare honour for a great man. Sadly the people who he served, educated and lifted from poverty today no longer read about him. No wonder Shakespeare said: “The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones”. So is the case of Lawrence, the Baron of The Punjab.