The British East India Company was founded by a royal charter in 1600 for the express purpose of profitable exploitation of trade with India and Asian countries. In 1608, they landed in Surat, a coastal city in West Gujarat during the Mogul period and with permission and established the first trading station and factory.
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| English cemetery of Surat, gujarattourism.com |
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| British cemetery, Suratcommons.wikimedia.org/ |
By the time when the British left the shores of India in August in1947, they not only left behind a divided India with poor treasury and emaciated population but also between 700 to 1,000 cemeteries across the land.
What is surprising is they used the burial places of the dead as symbols of their growing political power and cultural dominance , wealth and personal status. relegating the European Christian practices to the back side by following the practice of the Muslims elites. Contrary to Christian and other practices, Hindus cremate the dead and don't bury them. The English built massive dome like or temple like structures over the graves, and followed the design styles of Europe and Indian - mostly Mogul. For example the South Park Street Cemetery, the oldest non-church cemetery in the world has become a center piece massive toms of various sizes - neoclassical tombs, tall obelisks, columns, etc urns.
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| Tomb of Alexander Patrick Johnstonesahapedia.org |
Above Image: Kolkata South park cemetery, largest one in 1800s. In 1769, 8 acre land was acquired for the cemetery to avoid space crunch. The structure over the tomb is Indo-Saracenic.........
By 1800 the South Park Street Cemetery, the oldest non-church cemetery in the world was crowded with massive neoclassical tombs, tall obelisks, columns, urns. Many British cemeteries across India are slowly crumbling due to various reasons such as lack of funds, official apathy, misuse of grave s and vandalism. They are all protected monuments, but they are not properly fenced. The ASI and state governments like West Bengal are making efforts to repair them and put them back to old glory.
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| 18th CE British Nabob. .quora.com/ |
There arises a necessity to compare the English the early cemetery at Surat with those at other places. Considering the way the massive mausoleums are built on the tombs, the Surat's neglected colonial cemetery brings out the grandiose dreams of rich British Shaibs who were later bitingly nick-named British Nabobs in their homeland upon their return with a huge bundle of ill-gotten money.
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| Robert Clive, Nabob general.nam.ac.uk |
Above image: Clive as Governor of Bengal (1758-60 and 1764-67) became a master looter of Bengal. Under him wheeling and dealing and corruption were rampant. He got back to Britain to be initially denounced in Parliament as a corrupt 'nabob'.........
Pretending aristocracy, they broke into upper class and tried to have political clout. Unfortunately, they lacked the grace and polite manners of the British aristocrats. In some boroughs, politically motivated, they created class strife among the communities. Some bought large estates , consolidated their wealth and held powerful posts in the government between 1700 and 1800 CE.
These newly rich Bobs were neither royals. Nor were they born rich and had connection with the British Royal family such as Lord Napier, Duke Wellington, Lord Curzon or Lord Cornwallis and others. Starting their lives at rock bottom in the English company in India many of them became fabulously rich and lived in style taking inspiration from the Indian rulers. They were corrupt, dishonest and doing business on the sides illegally (not taking permission from the local rulers).
But many of the nouveaux riches spent their last days and died in India some of them had a big structure built over the grave and some had a simple tomb with epithet their grave. The historical monuments to the dead became “important tools for projecting British power in India .”The big structure on them highlight their status in the society as well as in the company.
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