인도 독립 70주년 영국지배에 맞선 군인들의 봉기

[아시아엔=라훌 아이자즈 파키스탄 프리랜서 저널리스트] 영국의 인도지배는 종식된 지 70년 밖에 안 됐다.대륙 곳곳에, 사람들 머릿속에 아직도 남아있다. 1947년 인도와 파키스탄 독립 이전 영국은 대학·시장·박물관 등 공공시설을 세우면서 카라치를 대도시로 키웠다.

카라치는 정치·군사·경제적으로 매우 중요한 무역항으로 성장했다. 카라치 엠페러스 마켓은 빅토리아 여왕 재위 50주년을 기념해 1889년 건립됐다.

그러나 사람들은 이 시장 터에서 1세기 반 전 무슨 일이 일어났는지는 잘 모른다. 엠페러스 마켓이 들어선 자리는 원래 영국군 보병 주둔지였다. 1857년 ‘세포이’라 불린 인도병사들의 항쟁이 일어났다.

그 결과 동인도회사가 해체되고 1858년부터 인도대륙은 빅토리아 여왕 직할통치에 들어갔다.

엠페러스 마켓 터의 인도병사들도 항쟁에 참여했다. 1857년 9월13일 44명의 병사들이 일제히 봉기하기로 모의했는데, 그 중 2명이 배신해 영국군에 밀고하는 바람에 거사가 무산됐다. 절반은 현장에서 체포되고 나머지는 달아나다 사살되거나 붙잡혔다.

사살된 시신은 여러 조각으로 잘려 바다에 버려졌다. 9월17일 영국군 2개 연대가 집결한 가운데 붙잡힌 15명에 대한 교수형이 집행됐다.

반란 지도자로 지목된 병사 2명은 대포 포문에 묶어 발사함으로써 말 그대로 산산조각 나 날아가는 처참한 장면이 벌어졌다. 나머지 체포된 병사들은 악명 높은 안다만 군도로 추방됐다. 인도인들의 추모행렬이 계속되자 영국 당국은 이 자리에 고딕양식의 거대한 시장을 세웠다.

너비 20m 회랑 4개, 42m 높이 시계탑 4개로 둘러싼 장대한 건축물이다. 엠페러스 마켓은 전쟁과 반란, 배신과 처형의 기억을 발 아래 묻은 채 오늘도 시장 기능을 다하고 있다.

A forgotten story of rebellion in British Raj

“Once upon a time” the British ruled in the Indian sub-continent. I find this phrase “once upon a time” rather interesting in our context.

It creates a distance between the events of the story and the reader: distance in time, connection or direct relevancy.

Today, the history of the sub-continent is talked about like some sort of mythological narrative or story-bookish tale, but the events did not occur “once upon a time,” but only a handful of decades ago.

Maybe a couple thousand years from now, we can tell stories of the Raj as “once upon a time.” It has been over sixty years since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947.

Traces of the Raj can still be found here, in the land and in the minds of the people. Many famous places date back to the British rule and are still functional like Karachi Cantonment Railway Station (1898), Frere Hall (1865), National College of Arts (1875) in Lahore and a large number of market places all over the country.

The British helped develop Karachi city and turned it into a metropolis. They built places for public welfare like markets, museums, etc. Likewise, Empress Market was built in 1889 (one of the traces of the Raj that still exists).

The British claimed the market was a gift from Queen Victoria (who had just recently celebrated her Golden Jubilee in 1887) to the people of Karachi.

But what most people today do not know are the events that took place at the site of Empress Market well before its formation. Was what lies beneath the grand structure that has stood there for over a century now all in the name of British Raj and public welfare?

The year 1857 saw the Indian Uprising against the British rule. It started in different parts of the Indian subcontinent and soon posed a threat to the East India Company and the British rule.

Mainly local soldiers (designated as ‘sepoys’ back then) conspired to overthrow the British. The whole rebellion caused a great amount of trouble to the authority and subsequently caused the dissolution of the East India Company in 1858. Consequently, the Indian subcontinent was directly governed by the Queen.

Karachi was a whole different territory though, and a very important one.

The British realized the significance of its location, specifically the port that could be used for trading; thus they rapidly developed upon the city. Inevitably, Karachi became an important city in terms of political and military power as well. The British established major sections of Karachi as their military cantonment.

Among them was the Saddar town where Empress Market stands. During the 1857 Uprising, Karachi also played an important role. The infantries stationed here also schemed to attack the British military.

But what no one knew was that two of their own soldiers would betray them and inform the British of the upcoming attacks.

According to a Sindhi writer Gul Hasan Kalmati, on the night of 13 September 1857, the rebellion was plotted, but two sepoys informed the British army of the 21st Native Infantry Regiment’s plan to attack them and escape to Delhi.

Rebels caught one by one

The rebellion was led by Hawaldar Ram Deen Pandey and Hawaldar Suraj Bali Tevari and all in all, forty four people were involved, but before they could carry out the plan, the British army surrounded the cantonment area.

Half of the rebels escaped while the other half surrendered. In the following days, three were found and shot dead. Their bodies were cut into pieces and thrown in the sea.

By 16 September 1857, the other nineteen were arrested from different areas of Karachi. On 17 September, the British army, 14th and 21st Regiment gathered at the site of Empress Market, which was just an empty ground back then with a post office, a horse stable and Saddar market nearby.

Fifteen arrested rebels were hanged, while Suraj Bali Tevari, one of the leaders of the rebellion, was blown from the gun along with two other accomplices(a method of execution employed by the British where the soldiers found guilty of mutiny were tied to the mouth of cannons and fired, literally blowing their body into pieces).

Similarly, Ram Deen Pandey was also blown from the gun on 23 September 1857 and consequently, all bodies were thrown in the drain. The remaining twenty-five soldiers were court martialled and exiled to the Andaman Islands. The prison and the Andaman Islands acquired the name ‘Black-water’ (or Kala Pani) by the Indian prisoners.

The Great Indian Rebellion was successfully controlled, but what followed was quite interesting as the people who had witnessed the assassinations kept coming back to the site to offer prayers and flowers.

As years passed, the number of people increased. The place was slowly turning into a memorial and the British authority noticed.

Dark stories buried beneath

In 1884, the foundation stone was laid for what was to be called ‘Empress Market.’ One of the most famous architects of the day, James Strachan designed the magnificent structure in Gothic style.

With a large open-air courtyard in the center, it has four galleries, each sixtyfour feet wide.

Every gallery has a clock and the height of the main tower is one hundred and forty feet. Empress Market still stands today, serving its purpose.

As one shopkeeper in the market suggested, it was built for the people as it was easier for people to get everything they wanted at one place(probably one of the earliest modern supermarkets in India).

The grand structure still stands today, but underneath are buried many stories of war, rebellion and assassination.

The reason we think of these events today as something that happened “once upon a time” is because we tend to think that they do not have any direct effect on us, but they do.

The effects started one and a half centuries back. The stories that we narrate today are because they are still relevant and once they stop being relevant to us, they will naturally fade into history and then if we ever come across them again, we will say, “Yes, we were ruled by the British… once upon a time!”