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Soldier Sahibs: The Daring Adventurers Who Tamed India's Northwest Frontier

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Soldier Sahibs is an old-fashioned and unapologetically imperialist book. And writer Charles Allen makes sure you know what you are getting into by giving it the flagrantly politically incorrect subtitle: The Daring Adventurers Who Tamed India's Northwest Frontier. But imperialist does not necessarily mean inaccurate and Allen has taken a good deal of trouble to get his facts right. The book claims to tell "The astonishing story of a brotherhood of young men who together laid claim to the most notorious frontier in the world, India's North-West Frontier,
which today forms the volatile boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan."
The men in question include John Nicholson, Harry Lumsden (founder of the Guides), Herbert Edwardes, William Hodson, James Abbot and Neville Chamberlain. Protégés of Sir Henry Lawrence, these men were responsible for laying the foundations of British rule in the Punjab and the Northwest Frontier. The author's intent is to tell the story of these young men and through their adventures, give the reader an idea of how the British conquered - or, as he would prefer, "pacified" - the 'wild' Northwest Frontier of India.
But while Soldier Sahibs gives a very readable account of the adventures of these (surprisingly) young men, it is not possible to piece together the broader history of those times from his book. Why the British were here in the first place and what were the factors that made a small island in Europe more powerful than any kingdom in India do not form any part of Allen's concerns. Nor does he waste much time explaining the situation in the Punjab or of the East India Company at that time. In fact, the author does not even provide a map of the vast area over which his protagonists established their rule. If you are totally at sea about those times, then you may have to read a few other books to fully appreciate the goings-on in this one. But if you are one of those enthusiasts who cannot get enough of the Raj, the mutiny and all that jazz, then you will definitely enjoy this book. Its written in authentic 'Flashman' style, with wit and verve and loads of 'local color'.
The English heroes may appear larger than life but by all accounts some of them indeed were larger than life. And being Englishmen, they left us a veritable storehouse of laconic and understated wisecracks. These include Nicholson walking into the mess to tell his fellow officers: "I am sorry gentlemen, to have kept you waiting for your dinner, but I have been hanging your cooks." (The cooks had apparently poisoned the food but were detected and hanged, and dinner was served half an hour late).
Though Nicholson gets the most lines in the book, the stories of Edwardes of Peshawar and Bannu and Abbot of Abbotabad are also told in some detail. William Hodson, the villain who executed Bahadur Shah Zafar's sons, also gets a sympathetic hearing. We are told surprisingly little about Sir Henry Lawrence, who is supposedly the godfather of this fraternity. And it is not always clear why certain officer's lives are described in detail and others get only cursory mention. Lack or availability of sources may be the explanation for that .
In these times, it is impossible to read such a book and not look for parallels with the current efforts at "pacifying" Afghanistan. But these British adventurers and their peculiar code of life are poles apart from the westerners who are now coming to bring us into the civilised world. Occasionally, Madison Avenue will try to create a suitable heroic image for some American colonel or diplomat but the substance of this new empire is very different from the last one and so are its agents.
Nicholson and company may have been bigoted, male chauvinist psychopaths, yet they also had undoubted personal courage and their own peculiar brand of love of justice. In the Pakhtuns and the Punjabis, they found not just enemies, but also friends and fellow adventurers. It is fashionable these days to describe their local supporters as 'traitors' who took the side of a 'foreign power'. But to the Sikhs, Punjabi Muslims and Pakhtuns who fought under Nicholson to reconquer Delhi, the capital was was as much a foreign power as the British. And these British officers had always respected their honour and treated them fairly. They provided an administration that was in many ways a big improvement over the 'locals' they had replaced. In fact, it would not be remiss to say that the Punjabis and Pakhtuns who fought for the British were men of higher character and personal courage than almost any of their current detractors. Many things have improved since Nicholson rode across the plains of the Punjab blowing mutineers from canons but it is hard to avoid the suspicion that some things have also deteriorated.

The author was born in Indian where six generations of his family served under the British Raj. His father was a political officer in the North-West Frontier. He must have brought him to the idea of dealing with the affairs of the Raj which was in that area always also and most prominently a military issue. He himself returned after the usual education in England to the Indian Subcontinent in 1966 to work with the Voluntary Service Overseas in Nepal. He made a name as a historian who specialized in British colonial and military subjects. And a specialist he is in deed.
This book is about the British Raj in northern India and the Himalayas. For anybody who has no knowledge at all in this field, it must be difficult in parts to read, if not out of date. Here my warning: this is not only a book about soldiery! For the author the "Soldier Sahibs" stand for something on a larger scale. They are to blame for making the famous North-West Frontier. So, this book is about that border-line and its adjacent land which is now Pakistan and Afghanistan foremost.
The book is mainly about events in north-west British India (which included Pakistan) between 1839 and 1857, spanning the advent and mortal departure of a certain cadet, whose proceedings in that exotic, demanding surrounding is also described, and this very broad and detailed. An attempt to bring to life what seems to be so far away!
Meanwhile the British East India Company extended its conquests to the very edge of the mountain barriers which define the northern boundaries of the Indian sub-continent, a land that has always seen wars and revolt and still has, long since the influence of the British faded away.
I read this book because I visited these areas and I tried to get a better idea of what made the area to what it is now. It is still all about power, economical advantage on one side and the self-establishment and self-determination, self-rule and other "selfes" cause the people who live there are concerned about their "selfes" and nothing else, a lesson still to be learned by the western allies, it seems.
We hear here a lot about army organization which is not so interesting today, although it helps to understand the procedures then, when we know that there were regular and irregular troops of the Company; that the Native infantry was largely made up of recruits from certain regions, more or less difficult to handle, and nearly all high-born Hindus from the Brahmin and Rajput upper castes, with the result that the men in these corps put caste and religious loyalty first. An infantry regiment raised in Punjab might have had two companies of Punjab Muslims, one of Sikhs and one of Hindu Dogras. That asked for trouble.
Sometimes I had a tinge of suspicion that the author tends to hail the transporters of his stories, as far as the British are concerned, that special breed of British heroes: "Saints militant fired with Christian grace; beaux sabreurs, sans peur et sans reproche" who were "mostly young men of strong convictions and unlimited self-confidence, driven to the extraordinary things quite as much by their upbringing and motivation as by their personal qualities". A good match for the Afghans!
And one never gave a thought to danger, would Neville Chamberlain write many years later after time had darkened the memory mercifully. At that time a sword and a horse was enough for a British gentlemen - and some cricket at home.
Another factor was the religious conviction of those who saw themselves as the pioneers of "Christian civilization." God above and duty below! The author is asserting that one reason for the success of the British in combat was their strong faith and their favourite mark, the "IHS" the Greek letters for "Jesus my saviour".
Many wrote of the recklessness with which the British soldiery went into battle in these times. We have to make a leap of imagination from our own faithless age, back to an era when the promise of the heavenly kingdom steeled the hearts of those who fought the good fight. Yeah, and drinks also played their part!
How sweet it is to die for the nation! The author puts this in the mouth of the dying soldiers of the mutiny in Delhi. And dying was much! Even today you can visit over there cemeteries with graves of so many young men whose luck ran out.
All of them gentlemen, of course, but in reality mostly Scots, Scots-Irish or Anglo-Irish, younger sons of small country squires, lairds and vicars who lacked the means to set them up at home. The Queen`s Army, the Navy, the clergy - and India: these were the classic outlets that might, if fortune and patronage smiled, bring advancement sufficient to retire at fifty.
India, as the well known borderer Sir Walter Scott wrote, "had become the corn chest of Scotland where we poor gentry must send our youngest sons as we must send our black cattle to the South".
Not to speak of the masses of Indian soldiers who got never graves at all, due to the customs of the country. In my opinion this is also the shortcoming of the book. It is on Sahib soldiers, true, but a chapter on those who served them, would not have been too bad!

Besides that the book is mainly on the wars of the period, Afghanistan 1839-1842, the Sikh wars 1845-49, the consolidation time till 1853, the Sepoy mutinity of 1857. A rough time for everybody! And everywhere! It was a particularly violent an gunsmoke filled period of time in which killings were daily routine on both sides.
As heroic the soldier might have been, their commanders lacked some intelligence sometimes, or was it just the ignorance of a superior race that made them consider only their own affairs? How else could the mutiny be explained which broke out because muslim soldiers did not like to lick their cartridges with pork fat and Hindus neither theirs with beef?
Another substantial element of this book is the interaction between local forces and the British in a more friendly and respectful way. The mutuality of East and West! And there is the frontier itself, as a border and imaginary line that runs for about a thousand kilometres between Pakistan and Afghanistan from one mountain top to the other, cutting right through the homelands of the Pashtune tribes, made up of poor soil, scrubby terrain, sandy and rocky mountainsides but with fertile valleys.
Still a lure today, but hardly a paradise! And the main Frontier town Peshawar has its bazaars with large sections unchanged, still thronged by passers-by as varied and picturesque as they were in those days. Changed have the means of transport, the loudest and fastest being the cavalry, while now stinking and noisy trucks are endangering the streets -besides occasional bomb blasts.
The life of the Frontier was hard and they tread it daily to the brink of eternity between horror and beauty, between dust-storms and fragrance of flowers. Yes, not so much has changed.
The North-West Frontier was to the British what the Wild West was for the US. It needed hard man for a hard country, merciless to the loser, with people who always carry guns but are also hospitable to the extremes. Throughout the British reign there was hardly one year that passed without any kind of military expedition to bring one or other of the clans to heel.
The people still refuse to be a part of the whole, even if these means bringing wrath of governments down on their heads. An independent people - a stubborn people!
A book only for the aficionados of the North-West Frontier myth! Another myth which has a strong reality!

In his prologue, Charles Allen lays out the approach he will take Soldier Sahibs. This is not to be read so much as a comprehensive history examining the social issues or complexities of the expansion of British rule out of India and into the North-West Frontier (now partially in Afghanistan and partially in Pakistan), but as a true-to-life "boy's adventure" story. The tale is of John Nicholson (one of Allen's forbearers) and the other Young Men who, under the guidance of Henry Lawrence, help spread the reach of the East India Company.

And what a tale it is: culture clashes, petty bureaucrats, noble savages. Allen draws heavily upon the letters, diaries and reports of the principle heroes of the tale, leading to a history that is drenched in Victorian stereotypes and ideals. With this caveat in mind, however, Allen does a great job of bringing the modern reader into the world walked by Nicholson and his compatriots. The writing draws in the reader with fantastic tale after fantastic tale, starting with a brief biography of Nicholson and of the East India Company and ending with the lifting of the siege of Delhi during the Sepoy Rebellion. There are lots of vignettes highlighting life in the service of "John Company" and the British Empire and the inevitable culture clashes that occurred across the subcontinent.

Oh, and for those keeping track at home, the subtitle "The Daring Adventurers Who Tamed India's Northwest Frontier" appears to be the work of a copywriter at the U.S. publisher, Carroll & Graf. The original U.K. subtitle is "The Men Who Made the North-West Frontier," which doesn't have as much flash, but doesn't seem as harsh as "tamed."

(Reviewed copy was the 2001 paperback version, printed in the U.K. by Abacus.)

The book is well researched.

However, it has a bad flaw in that as its sub-title clearly implies,
Allen seems to think that these were "the good old days". The perspective is very pro-British and implicitly pro-empire.

For example, today, most mainstream historians agree that while the events of 1857 did not make for a "First War of Independence", neither could they be called a "Mutiny". But Mr. Allen continues, at the cusp of the 21st century to use the word "Mutiny" and incorrectly states in his introduction that to call it anything else is being "politically correct" but inaccurate.

So also, Allen selectively presents incidents, omitting egregious acts of brutality committed by the British. Most glaring is his avoidance of all mention of Frederick Henry Cooper. While the Movable Column was near Amritsar, the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, Frederick Henry Cooper, committed an atrocity that to this day is not mentioned by the more biased histories. (Cooper executed 282 members of the 26th BNI with no trial, because other members of the BNI had killed two British soldiers.)

Robert Montgomery, one of Lawrence's "Young Men" that Allen writes about, sent highly congratulatory letters to Cooper about this incident. So too did John Lawrence.

Allen, sadly, doesn't mention this atrocity, even though the book is filled with details on the Movable Column and its activities in/near Amritsar on the very day Cooper committed his atrocity. This severely flaws his book. While it is understandable that the nationalist histories of these events written in the 19th century avoid mention of Cooper's executions, it is simply not acceptable by the standards of scholarship of the 20th century, to slide over and ignore an incident of the scope and barbarity of Coopers.

The reality is that the Lawrence brothers and their "Young Men" were proto-Nazis, ruling native Indians through force and terror. Rather than comment on this aspect of the young men, Allen seeks to convey that these men were larger than life and "heroic".

Fascinating account of the British Officers and administrators who tamed India's North West frontier, the current boundary between Pakistan and Afghanistan from master storyteller Charles Allen. Mind you, I think you have to have a real interest in the subject to follow this meticulously researched and detailed account which follows the fortunes of a gallant and heroic group of individuals from 1839-1857. Allen captures the drive,stoicism and sacrifices of these men as they confronted enormous challenges in one of the most remote and savage areas on the planet. Also gives a great insight into how the British marshalled and controlled large expeditionary forces with the use of relatively low numbers of crown forces. The Afghans are obviously always there in the background and portrayed as dangerous and cunning adversaries. Although the story is set over 150 years ago the parallels to today's seemingly endless conflict in the same region are striking and one wonders if the region is any less volatile today. A very good read.

Let me begin by saying that I was looking forward to reading this book; I'm fascinated by the British Raj and especially the Northwest Frontier. I grew up on Gunga Din and King of the Khyber Rifles and Jim Corbett, and eagerly plowed my way (pun intended!) through George MacDonald Frasier's Flashman novels, especially the ones set in India. I lived in India for a few months, and am always eager to read something new about it.

Having said that, I found this book a bit much. It's essentially a rehash of the Victorian colonial ethos point of view on India, with not a lot new to add to the historical record either. It's been a century and a half since the Indian Mutiny, but this author seems incapable of seeing it from the Indian's point of view at all. There's very little mention of the savage way it was put down, and he continues with the old romantization of the Sikhs and Pathan tribesmen (the "good" Indians) versus the Hindus and Muslims of the Delhi Sultanate who revolted (the "bad" Indians); the book has a very limited discussion (or understanding, for that matter) of why they revolted and the factors that set it off. The Brits did a lot of good in India but, let's face it, they were there for the money, and the Christianity and White Man's Burden stuff was all a gloss.

I was surprised this book was written so recently, it seems like something from before the Second World War. I'd recommend going to William Dalrymple if you want a more balanced perspective, especially The Last Mughal if you're interested in the same period, a really outstanding book IMHO.

I still love Flashman and Corbett, by the way!

This book is a good description of Indian history from about 1830 to 1857 culminating in the Indian Mutiny.

It is about the men who commanded the NW Indian territories on behalf of the East India Company and principally about one hero called John Nicholson. Despite the subtitle, this book is a great deal more than short biographic narratives about the men. It is the seam of their environment that provides half the interest consisting of geographical descriptions, the attitudes of Indians and how the British and "Indians" conducted their business.

There are some gripping accounts of bloody battles on horseback, with bits being chopped off and we can see that films like Gladiator are the tip of the iceberg when it came to hand to hand horseback combat before the 20th century. The men and horses were brave and some of them knew what they wanted and how to get it. This is particularly true in how the violent Pakhtun tribes in Pakistan were bought to heel. As aliens, the British succeeded in creating order (as they were neutral) between parties like Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus who could easily foment religious rivalry between themselves. The British had an art to how they brought about law and order and we can see it was no small accomplishment.

There is a certain amount of bigotry and imperialism in operation which is quite clear, but these were the days before the British became complacent and divorced themselves from Indian culture at the beginnings of the 20th century, which eventually created the independence movement that lead to partition.

Sikhs today feel left out of a homeland that was owed to them by the British. This is a book that shows how loyal Sikhs were to the British and the background to their territorial claims.

Charles Allen is a fine author and this book deserves praise. The war in it and many quotations make the book quite gripping and one hopes some people today are made of the same stuff as certain aspects of the men described - though not all of those aspects.