The Ocean of Churn: How the Indian Ocean Shaped Human History

by Sanjeev Sanyal

  The Free-Port of Singapore

  Meanwhile, the English East India Company had a problem—it may have succeeded on the battlefield but its operations in India were not very profitable. The constant wars and the unscrupulous dealings of its agents meant that individuals became rich but the company suffered. Both Robert Clive and his successor Warren Hastings would be accused of corruption. By the late eighteenth century, trade with China was the only profitable part of the EIC’s operations. However, the Chinese insisted on being paid in silver coins in exchange for tea, porcelain and other products coveted in Europe. As the trade gap grew, the British faced the same precious metals shortage faced by ancient Romans when trading with India. These are the problems that would have been debated by the EIC’s directors sitting at the company headquarters on Leadenhall Street in London.

  They found their solution in opium. Opium had been imported in small quantities into China from ancient times and used in traditional medicine. From the late eighteenth century, however, it became very fashionable to smoke it.3 Depictions in popular culture tend to show sleazy opium dens but in reality, it was consumed at all levels of society and was seen as a sign of connoisseurship with its intricately carved pipes, silver heating lamps and reclining couches in red silk. As demand for opium boomed, the British found that they could use their control over India to grow poppies. The system of triangular trade was born: The British sold cheap mill-made textiles to the Indians and bought opium from them at artificially low prices. The opium was then sold to the Chinese in exchange for goods that were sold back in Europe. It solved the EIC’s silver problem but destroyed the Indian economy. Cheap textiles made on an industrial scale by British mills devastated the old artisan-made textile industry. The shock was so great that a century later, the leaders of India’s independence movement would choose the hand-turned spinning wheel as their symbol of protest. Meanwhile, farmers in EIC-controlled areas were forced to grow opium (along with indigo that was used as a dye) and sell it to company agents at artificially low prices. The adverse terms of trade impoverished the farmers but what made it worse was that they were often not free to grow food crops; a small fluctuation in weather conditions resulted in devastating famines.

  Although the triangular system solved the payments problem of trade with China, it still left the British exposed to geopolitical risk. The sea route from India to China had to pass through the Malacca Straits and there was always the risk that the Dutch would use their control over the region to cut off the passage. The British had a couple of small holdings in the region—at Penang and Bencoolen (now Bengkulu)—but they knew that these were inadequate. Thus, when Napoleon took control of Holland, the British moved systematically to take over Dutch territories in the Indian Ocean: Cape Colony at the southern tip of Africa, Sri Lanka, the nutmeg-growing Banda Islands, clove-growing Ternate. With the mother country under occupation, the Dutch put up little resistance and by 1799, the VOC itself ceased to exist. The remaining Dutch territories were briefly managed by a French vassal state called the Batavian Republic but after a brief period of peace, the British took over the Dutch headquarters at Batavia (Jakarta) and occupied Java in 1811. Note that most of the British troops consisted of Indian soldiers who had become the backbone of British power in the East.

  It was a column of Indian troops, led by a young officer called Thomas Stamford Raffles, that marched into central Java and stormed the palace of the Sultan of Yogyakarta. The palace still exists although many of the original buildings were damaged during the British attack and had to be substantially rebuilt. Wandering around the grounds and the airy pavilions of the palace, one is struck by how the influence of the Majapahit has survived to this day despite European colonization and the conversion to Islam. Raffles too was amazed by the large numbers of remains of the ancient Hindu–Buddhist kingdoms of Java. One of the sites that he ‘discovered’ was Borobudur that he arranged to be cleared of the encroaching jungle and to be surveyed. Raffles showed an extraordinary interest in the natural and cultural history of the region and would be one of the first to initiate its systematic study. A factor that may have driven his interest in the temple ruins was that he had become a Freemason and Masons during this period were very interested in the study of ancient pagan sites.4 One wonders if Raffles saw the panels in Borobudur depicting the merchant ships, a reminder of another age of globalization.

  Raffles would return to England briefly before coming back as the Governor of the tiny British colony of Bencoolen in Sumatra. He soon realized that with Napoleon defeated, the Dutch would ask the British to return their territories in the Indian Ocean. This would mean that the sailing route to China through the Malacca Straits would again be under threat. After surveying the area, Raffles identified Singapore as a good place to set up a new outpost that would ensure permanent British control over the passage. Using an internal squabble within the royal family of Johor, Raffles managed to gain control over the island in 1819. Crucially, he declared that Singapore would be a free port: ‘Our object is not territory, but trade; a great commercial emporium, and a fulcrum, whence we may extend our influence politically as circumstances may hereafter require.’5

  The idea of a free port under British protection was immediately attractive and within a few weeks, thousands of Malays and Chinese had shifted from Malacca to Singapore. The Dutch were furious and lodged a protest with London claiming that the free port was within their traditional zone of influence. The British Governor of Penang also opposed Singapore as it undermined his turf. However, the new settlement became so successful in such a short time that it could not be ignored. The authorities in London and Calcutta grasped its strategic importance at the tip of the Malay peninsula and eventually backed Raffles. The Dutch, in any case, were too weak to push their case too far. The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 gave the British control over Singapore and the Malay peninsula, including Malacca. The Dutch retrieved territories that we now know as Indonesia. As compensation for Singapore, the Dutch also got Bencoolen (proving once again that the British always trump the Dutch when it comes to urban real estate).

  When the British first established their outpost in Singapore, the coastline was drastically different from what we see now. Beach Road is now far inland due to several rounds of land reclamation but, as the name suggests, it used to originally run along the beach. Thus, residents of the famous Raffles Hotel could sit on the veranda and look out to sea. Similarly, Telok Ayer Street which runs through today’s central business district was once the water-front. One of the most prominent buildings on the street is the Thian Hock Keng temple, established in the 1830s, that Chinese sailors visited as soon as they landed on firm land in order to give thanks for a safe sea voyage. Right next door is Nagore Dargah that was used by Indian Muslims for exactly the same purpose. The Hindus had also been given a plot on the street for a temple but would build the Mariamman temple on another site not far away. Thus, Singapore was a bubbling mix of cultures right from the beginning.

  Kandy for the British

  One of the Dutch territories occupied by the British during the Napoleonic wars was Sri Lanka. The Europeans had taken control of the coast but the mountainous interior was still under the kingdom of Kandy. The kingdom was then ruled by the Nayak dynasty who, interestingly, were not Sinhalese but were of south Indian origin. The last Sinhalese ruler of Kandy did not have any legitimate sons and, after his death in 1739, the throne was taken over by his queen’s brother who came from the ruling family of Madurai (once the capital of the Pandyas). As one can see, the link between the Sinhalese and Madurai is a very deep and long-lasting one. Nonetheless, the Nayaks were aware of their foreign status and they strongly encouraged a Buddhist revival in order to cement their position.

  Just as Tamils and Sinhalese had close links, we have seen how Hinduism and Buddhism were also very closely connected throughout the island’s history. As already mentioned, virtually all old Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka have shrines dedicated to Hindu
gods including the most sacred Temple of the Tooth Relic. Indeed, the Sinhalese hero Rajasimha, who had fought the Portuguese, would probably have described himself as a Hindu. In the same vein, it was an Indian dynasty that would heavily invest in reviving Buddhism on the island. By the eighteenth century, the institutions of Buddhism had long been in decline due to constant wars and the pressure from Christian missionaries. The Nayak kings, therefore, imported monks from Thailand to re-establish various institutions.6 According to historian K.M. de Silva, the famous Esala Perahera procession of Kandy was originally a procession for Hindu gods under the Sinhalese dynasties but was repurposed for the Tooth Relic under the Nayak kings.

  Meanwhile, having secured the coast, the British decided to attempt what both the Portuguese and the Dutch had failed to do—subjugate Kandy. In May 1803, an expeditionary force was sent into the mountains but on arrival found that the town had been evacuated. While the commanders were debating what to do next, the monsoons arrived and the British found themselves caught without supplies in a muddy and wet terrain. Eventually they decided to retreat to Colombo but were harassed constantly by Sinhalese guerrilla attacks as they made their way back through the slushy mountain passes. Almost all the British officers and men were killed. The episode is not dissimilar to the much better-known events relating to the retreat of the British army from Kabul during the First Anglo-Afghan War. As with the Afghans four decades later, the gains of the initial victory were not long-lasting. The British returned to Kandy in 1815 and, taking advantage of frictions between the king and the nobility, took over the kingdom with little resistance. Thus, the whole of Sri Lanka became part of the British empire.

  The Haze of Opium

  Although trade had been booming since the eighteenth century, Chinese authorities strictly restricted trade with the Europeans to a single port—Canton (i.e. Guangdong) in the Pearl River delta. Here business was controlled by a cartel of wealthy Chinese merchants known as the Hongs. During the trading season (September to January), Europeans were allowed to stay in the port in lodgings leased out by their Hong counterparts. Situated deliberately outside Canton’s city walls, these ‘factories’ included warehouses and living quarters. Outside of these months, the foreigners were expected to either go home or withdraw to the Portuguese enclave of Macau.7 In other words, the Chinese government kept the Europeans at arm’s length.

  Despite these restrictions, the East India Company and its agents benefited from its cosy long-term relationships with the Hongs. However, lobbying by its business rivals in Britain ended its monopoly over trade with the East and suddenly there were many new merchants trying to sell opium in China. Even the Americans entered the business. Many of the new entrants began to bypass the old arrangements and smuggle the drug into the mainland. As a result, the price of opium fell and its usage rose sharply in China. The flow of silver coins reversed and opium addiction became widespread.

  The Chinese imperial government was eventually forced to take action and, in May 1839, the authorities confiscated and destroyed 20,000 chests of opium in Humen. This triggered a chain of events that resulted in the First Opium War. The British sent out fifteen barrack ships with 7000 soldiers, mostly from India. They were armed with modern rifles and were backed by the Nemesis, a steam-powered warship. The scattered and outdated Chinese army was completely outmatched as the British fleet pounded its way up the coast. The apparently magical ability of the Nemesis to move irrespective of wind direction caused panic. Ultimately the Manchu emperor was forced to accept the humiliating conditions of the Treaty of Nanjing by which several ports were forced open for foreign trade and the British gained control of Hong Kong. War reparations, including compensation for the confiscated opium, were also paid.

  It is worth mentioning that when the Chinese were fighting British-led Indian soldiers along the eastern coast, they were simultaneously fighting Indian soldiers in Tibet! After establishing control over Ladakh, the famous general Zorawar Singh decided to march the Dogra army into Tibet in 1841. He pushed his way up to the sacred Mansarovar Lake but, despite his meticulous planning, was ultimately unable to sustain his supply lines through the harsh terrain. This allowed the Tibetans, along with Chinese reinforcements, to counter-attack. Zorawar Singh was caught defending an untenable position and was killed. The Dogras were now pushed back to Ladakh where they, in turn, defeated the Tibetan–Chinese army. At this point both sides seem to have been exhausted and peace was concluded under the Treaty of Chushul but this stretch of border between India and China remains disputed to this day.

  The peace between the Chinese and the Dogras would last (till the Indo-Chinese War of 1962) but that with the British would unravel a few years later. Tensions began to simmer in 1856 but the British could not respond for the next couple of years because a large section of the British-Indian army was in revolt across northern India during 1857–58. Given the importance of Indian soldiers in policing the growing empire, the British were able to pay attention to China only after the revolt had been brutally suppressed. The Second Opium War started as a series of skirmishes. A large expeditionary force was finally dispatched in 1860. With the active support of the French and the Americans, the British repeatedly defeated the Chinese imperial army and marched into Beijing. The Qing emperor fled his capital and the Summer Palace was deliberately destroyed.8 Yet again, Indian troops formed the bulk of British forces. They would return four decades later to help the British put down the Boxer Revolt in 1900–01.9

  One can see how Indian soldiering was of such importance in world history. The British empire, in particular, was heavily dependent on it. This is why one stream of India’s freedom movement would focus over several decades on undermining the loyalty of these soldiers.

  The Tycoons of Bombay

  The East India Company had built the British empire in Asia but by the middle of the nineteenth century it was effectively defunct. The incessant wars, rampant corruption and, ultimately, the loss of its monopoly had steadily eroded the company’s profits. The Revolt of 1857–58 in India exposed its inability to govern the empire it had created. The Court of Directors met one last time on 1 September 1858 at the company’s headquarters at Leadenhall Street. A few weeks later, its colonies were taken over by the Crown.10 The building on Leadenhall Street that housed the EIC’s headquarters, once the heart of the world’s largest commercial enterprise, no longer exists. I walked up and down the street one winter afternoon, armed with old sketches to identify the place till I realized that the site is now occupied by the Lloyd’s building which incongruously looks like a twentieth-century petrochemical refinery.

  Even as the EIC’s fortunes declined, it was replaced by new merchants and agency houses such as Forbes & Company and Bruce Fawcett & Company.11 One of the largest of these operations was run by Jardine, Matheson and Company (which survives today as the conglomerate Jardine Matheson Holdings). It was set up by Charles Magniac, James Matheson and William Jardine who initially used technical loopholes to circumvent the EIC’s monopoly in order to trade Indian cotton and opium in exchange for tea out of Canton. Business boomed after the EIC lost its monopoly in 1834 and they relocated their operations to Hong Kong after the First Opium War.

  While most Indian farmers and weavers were hurt by the triangular trade system, some Indians also benefited from working for the European merchants as agents and brokers. Many of these were drawn from the Parsi community, descendants of Zoroastrian refugees who had come to India centuries earlier from Iran. From the late eighteenth century, many Parsis had migrated to Bombay where they prospered as suppliers, victuallers and shipbuilders. Opium exports were initially monopolized by Calcutta but Bombay gradually emerged as an alternative hub as cotton farmers in Malwa switched to growing opium. Soon, Parsi agents became an important part of the supply chain all the way to Hong Kong. This is why many of Hong Kong’s old institutions have Parsi founders. The famous ferry between Hong Kong island and Kowloon, for example, was set up by Dorabjee Na
orojee Mithaiwala. The Indian brokers and agents were known as ‘shroffs’ (derived from the Hindi word ‘saraff’ used variously for agent, broker or money changer). The term ‘shroff’ survives in Hong Kong but is now used mostly for parking-ticket collectors—one of those odd artefacts of history!

  Arguably the most successful of the Parsi merchants of Bombay was Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy. He was born in 1783 and is said to have moved from Navsari to Bombay when he was still a boy. Bombay was a much smaller settlement than Calcutta but, with the Maratha threat receding, it was witnessing rapid growth. In 1780, the population of Bombay was estimated at 47,170 but by 1814 it had risen to 162,570 and had further jumped to 566,119 by 1849.12 Armed with a smattering of English and some knowledge of bookkeeping, the enterprising boy soon inserted himself into the city’s trading community. Jamsetjee would steadily earn himself both a large business and a good reputation as a reliable partner.

  In 1805, a few months before the British decisively beat the French navy at Trafalgar, Jamsetjee and William Jardine were taken prisoner by the French while sailing off the Sri Lankan coast. The captors later agreed to release the prisoners at a neutral Dutch outpost near the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa. While this transfer was taking place, a sudden gale wrecked their ship near the Cape. Both Jamsetjee and Jardine survived, but the shared experience created a bond that became the basis of a long-term business partnership. Jamsetjee soon became the main Indian partner of Jardine, Matheson & Company and acquired a large fleet of ships. He also became a highly respected citizen of Bombay and was included by the EIC’s Court of Directors in the Queen’s Honours List. In an elaborate ceremony at the Governor’s residence in May 1842, Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy was knighted.13