Lord Canning

Also called: Clemency Canning, Charles Canning · Topic: The Revolt of 1857 · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "Rebels and the Raj"

Meaning

Lord Canning (Charles Canning, 1856–1862) was the Governor-General of India during the Revolt of 1857. After power passed from the East India Company to the Crown in 1858, he became the first Viceroy of India.

• He links two big turning points. He ran the British side of the war against the 1857 rebels. Then, on 1 November 1858, he read out Queen Victoria's Proclamation, which started Crown rule. [2]
• His call to stop blind revenge against Indians earned him a mocking nickname in the British press: "Clemency Canning". Clemency means mercy.

Explanation

Background: the revolt breaks out under Canning

• Canning became Governor-General in 1856, just before the revolt. His predecessor was Lord Dalhousie, who had taken over many Indian states.
• The British changed the law first and sent the army afterwards:
• A series of Acts passed in May and June 1857 put North India under martial law. Martial law means army rule, where normal courts and normal rules stop.
• Military officers could try and punish Indians. So could ordinary Britons.

• In practice there was only one punishment for rebellion — death.

• The army then moved in from two directions:

• from Calcutta, the British base in the east;
• from Punjab, which stayed largely peaceful.

The reconquest, step by step

• 8 September 1857: British siege guns open fire on Delhi. [3]
• 14 September 1857: the British break holes in the city walls and attack. John Nicholson is fatally wounded at the Kashmere Gate. [3]
• 21 September 1857: Delhi is back under British control. [3]
• Late September 1857: Bahadur Shah II is arrested at Humayun's Tomb by William Hodson. He is later exiled to Rangoon, where he dies in 1862. [4]
• The Gangetic plain is retaken village by village. Rebels kept "melting away… and collecting again".
• March 1858: Awadh is finally subdued. It was the last big region to fall.
• Promise, not bullet: loyal taluqdars (big landholders) were told they could keep their estates.
• This broke the alliance between landholders and peasants.
• Rebel landholders lost their land. Many fled to Nepal.

Why "Clemency Canning"?

• The British repression was brutal:
• house-to-house massacres in Delhi;
• public "terror" executions at Kanpur;

• villages and standing crops burnt.

• Deaths caused by the British were "vastly more than those inflicted by the rebels".

• In Britain many people demanded revenge, especially after Nana Sahib's forces killed more than 200 British civilians at Kanpur.
• Canning asked officials to punish only the guilty, not every Indian.
• Angry critics in the British press then mocked him as "Clemency Canning".
• Exam point: the nickname mocked his plea for restraint. It does not mean British policy was actually mild. Martial law and mass killing went on during his rule.

Results: Canning and the start of Crown rule

• 2 August 1858: the Government of India Act moved power from the East India Company to the Crown. Queen Victoria became the formal ruler. [2]
• 1 November 1858: at Allahabad, Canning read the Queen's Proclamation. It was addressed to "the Princes, Chiefs and Peoples of India". [2] It promised:
• no interference in religion;
• inclusion of Indians in the government;

• a pardon for rebels not directly guilty of murdering Britons.

• Princes protected, not annexed:

• The Doctrine of Lapse was reversed. (This was Dalhousie's rule that a state with no natural heir passed to the British.)
• Princes could now adopt heirs, as long as they stayed loyal to the Crown.

• More than 560 princely states survived as loyal "breakwaters" against another revolt. [2]

• Policy changed from expansion to consolidation. The British stopped taking new land and focused on holding what they had. The army was reorganised so that Indian soldiers could never again unite as one bloc.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the Revolt of 1857 and the transfer to the Crown (1857–58). Canning was Governor-General from 1856 and the first Viceroy from 1858.
• Places:
• Calcutta, the seat of government;
• Delhi, Kanpur and Awadh, the main war zones;

• Allahabad, where the Proclamation was read. [2]

• Key people:

• Queen Victoria;
• Bahadur Shah II;
• Nana Sahib;
• Begum Hazrat Mahal of Awadh;

• John Nicholson and William Hodson.

• Evidence:

• the martial-law Acts of May–June 1857;
• the Government of India Act, 1858 [2];
• the original Queen's Proclamation, which is held in India's national archival collections online [5];
• Begum Hazrat Mahal's counter-proclamation, which gives the rebels' side.

Don't confuse with

• Lord Dalhousie: he was Canning's predecessor and the author of the Doctrine of Lapse. Canning's era reversed that doctrine.
• Government of India Act (2 August 1858) vs Queen's Proclamation (1 November 1858): Parliament passed the Act, which transferred power to the Crown [2]. The Proclamation was the announcement of policy to Indians, read by Canning at Allahabad. [2]
• Governor-General vs Viceroy: Canning held both titles. He was Governor-General during the revolt. He became "Viceroy" (the Crown's representative) only after 1858.
• George Canning: a British Prime Minister and Charles Canning's father. He was never Governor-General of India.

Prelims Hooks

• Governor-General during the Revolt of 1857 → Lord Canning. He was also the first Viceroy after the 1858 transfer.
• Queen's Proclamation, 1 November 1858 → read by Lord Canning at Allahabad. It promised religious non-interference and inclusion of Indians. [2]
• Government of India Act → passed 2 August 1858. It moved power from the East India Company to the Crown. [2]
• Correct order: Delhi retaken (21 September 1857) [3] → Awadh subdued (March 1858) → Government of India Act (2 August 1858) → Queen's Proclamation (1 November 1858). [2]
• Trap: "Clemency Canning" was a mocking name from British critics, not praise. The Acts of May–June 1857 still made death the only punishment for rebellion.
• After 1858 the Doctrine of Lapse was dropped. 560+ princely states survived under Crown rule. [2]

Mains Points

• Mercy in words, terror in practice:
• Canning's plea for restraint was real enough to anger the British public.
• But the martial-law Acts of 1857 had already removed fair trials. Large-scale killing in Delhi, Kanpur and the countryside went on during his rule.

• A good answer shows this gap between the leader's words and the state's actions.

• From conquest to consolidation:

• Canning's tenure is the bridge between Company rule and the British Raj.
• The Proclamation he read changed the form of rule: a Queen in place of a company, and princes protected instead of annexed.

• But a reorganised army and loyal landholders kept control just as tight. [2]

• The Indian reply:

• Begum Hazrat Mahal's counter-proclamation answered the Proclamation point by point.
• She wrote: "it is the unvarying custom of the English never to forgive a fault."
• This is a strong quote for showing how far Indians distrusted the 1858 promises.

Related concepts

• Martial law of 1857
• Siege of Delhi 1857
• Siege of Lucknow
• Hugh Rose
• Kanpur massacres 1857
• Government of India Act 1858
• Queen Victoria's Proclamation
• Peel Commission 1859
• Indian Councils Act 1861
• Indian High Courts Act 1861

Read more

• Repression and the transfer to the Crown