ABSTRACT
The above description perhaps encapsulates the fear that gripped the English residents in Calcutta after the onset of the Great Rebellion. More striking is the reference to the white woman feeling threatened by the white sailors, whom she had hired to protect her. In fact, the Great Rebellion did bring into focus the lower rungs of the European community, who acquired sudden importance and attention from the core of European society and the colonial administration. As the Great Rebellion assumed momentum, what haunted the English was the insignificant numbers of the ruling community in a vast and populous country such as India. This added to their fear, anxieties and apprehension. In this context, the colonial administration started recruiting European soldiers and sailors of every hue in the army, navy and police force, although it was realized that, if every insurgent or every mutineer was to be put to death or transported beyond the sea, the ruling whites needed 200,000 European soldiers, which was obviously impossible to muster up. However, it was accepted by the administration that there should be a visible overall presence of armed European men to ‘overawe’ the sepoys and other disgruntled sections of the ‘native’ population. European soldiers and sailors who were normally counted as ‘outcast’ had
to be accommodated in the imperial body. To fit these otherwise ‘intruders’ and ‘outcasts’ in the ‘superior ruling self ’, the imperial authority tried and experimented with all sorts of devices. Their number and mode of presence
was adjusted according to the requirements of the empire. During the crisis, these people were indiscriminately recruited with high pay and other benefits. Yet, after the crisis was over, the administration could not or did not want to afford the expense of maintaining the entire European force. The select committee appointed by the British parliament explored the pos-
sible ways of strengthening its hold over India. It was decided that colonization was not possible in the overpopulated country, but settlement of a section of Europeans who had skills and capital could provide the required strength. It was proposed that: ‘A large extension of the number of settlers over India would be a considerable guarantee against the necessity for maintaining our expensive army’.1 But the necessity of a significant European force could not be ignored as the settlers also demanded their presence for their safety.2
