Posted on: 14 June 2010

Major-General the Hon. Arthur Wellesley being received in Durbar at the Chepauk Palace Madras by Azim al-Daula, Nawab of the Carnatic, 18th February 1805.

Pencil, pen-and-ink and water-colour drawing by George Chinnery (1774-1852) showing Major-General the Hon. Arthur Wellesley (the future Duke of Wellington) being received in durbar at the Chepauk Palace, Madras, by the Nawab 'Azim al-Daula of the Carnatic, 18th February 1805. Wellesley is being introduced by a languid Lord William Cavendish Bentinck, the Governor of Madras, both figures standing in front of the Nawab seated on his 'masnad,' while sitting on a sofa behind are Admiral Peter Rainier, Commander of the fleet in the East Indies, and General Sir John Caradoc, Commander-in-Chief Madras. Various wives are seated nearby, and other officers and officials of the court stand around. Inscribed in the artist's hand in ink on the drawing: 'Feby. 18, 1805'; and in pencil on the mount: 'A durbar at Madras.' And in William Prinsep's hand: 'By Chinnery.'

The subject is the original composition for a grand historical painting which Chinnery never seems to have begun. The inscribed date indicates that he was an eye-witness to the event. Caradoc had brought out to Madras a letter of congratulation from George III to the Nawab on his ascending the 'masnad' in 1801, an empty honour as the Company had stripped the new Nawab of all power. Chinnery, however, ignores the official occasion for the durbar and presciently concentrates on Wellesley, whose glittering career in India was about to end. Wellesley had arrived in Calcutta with his regiment the 33rd Foot in February 1797, had been given the command of the Nizam's forces in the Fourth Mysore War, and had been in charge of the reserve during the attack on Seringapatam in 1799. He was placed in charge of the captured city and restored it to order. In 1802 with the outbreak of the Maratha War he commanded the Army of the Deccan, and had recently won two of his greatest battles at Assaye and Argaum in 1803, which broke the Maratha power in the Deccan, and had concluded peace treaties leading to great cessions of territory to the Company. His award of the K.C.B arrived at Madras in March 1805. Having declined the Commander-in-Chiefship of Bombay, he had just decided at the time of this drawing to return to England, which he did the following month in Admiral Rainier's flagship. The drawing is possibly one of those which, as William Prinsep relates in his memoirs (Mss Eur D1160, pp. 352-3), Chinnery had left behind in 1825 when he ran away to China. Prinsep and a group of friends had rescued Chinnery from his period of enforced exile at Serampore in fear of his creditors: 'When he ran away to China we found ourselves joint losers of more than 30000Rs. and the public pictures were most of them never painted at all. I found a message left for me that I might realise if I would a few half finished portraits which the badness of his health rendered it impossible for him to do more to. By an accident I found that he had placed his most valuable sketchbooks in the hands of a Frenchman of the name of L'Emarque from whom I easily procured them upon explanation of the circumstances. Chinnery was told they would be sold by auction if he did not redeem them himself which he never did, but circulated a story in China, which of course was run behind, that I had stolen them from him. The sum they and the few pictures alluded to produced was a mere trifle.'

Source : British Library


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Nawab of carnatica referred to above is aka Nawab of Arcot. In 1801, the British took over the military and civil administration from the Nawab, who was reduced to being a titular head of the Carnatic. Azim-ud-Dowla was installed by British Government on July 31, 1801 and he administered his private endowments and the properties comprised therein. In 1855, enforcing the Doctrine of Lapse after the last Nawab Ghulam Muhammed Ghouse Khan died without an heir, the British government took over much of the property of the Arcot Nawab. Two years later, the British built a university (Madras University) and a Senate Hall on Palace lands. The Senate Hall itself came up on the site that once housed the Artillery Park of the Nawabs, from where cannons were fired to greet visiting dignitaries. Arthur Wellesley who was part of the Mysore IV and after the fall of Tipu had stayed on at Srirangapatna/Mysore as commander of the British forces. on his appointment as Major General on the staff of the Madras Establishment left Mysore in 1803. In 1867, Azim Jah Bahadur, the uncle of the last Nawab of Arcot, Ghulam Muhammad Ghouse Khan, was nominated as the Prince of Arcot by the British and granted an annuity of Rs. 3 lakh of which parts were to be paid to his heirs in perpetuity. On April 12, 1871, a grand ceremony was held in the Banquet Hall (Now Rajaji Hall) to present the first Prince of Arcot with the title. The Governor of Madras conferred the title of Prince of Arcot, or Ameer-i-Arcot in India on Azim Jah Bahadur and the right of succession to his male heirs, and presented to him the Letters Patent issued by Queen Victoria. Today, the Prince continues to enjoy certain special privileges, honours and courtesies accorded to him by the Government to the Prince of Arcot since the late 1800s. He has also been accorded a very high protocol by the Governments of India and Tamil Nadu in the Warrant of Precedence and his rank is on a par with State Cabinet Ministers. . Though Government of India could break its own covenants with the Indian Rulers by deleting Art.291, Art 362, Art 366(22) of the constitution, Prince of Arcot continues to enjoy the title and privileges even today as his source of power and pelf originates from British Crown and is protected by Art. 294 of the Constitution. What an irony ! We want to honour the covenant of British Crown but not our own !

Well said Raja Chandra! There is still a lot of "mental slavery" in our country. Reminds me of how Maharani Gayatri Devi had to ask Queen Elizabeth to intervene on her behalf to egt Indira Gandhi to back off. How shameful it is that an Indian leader would still obey a foreign ruler but have pure hatred for their own.

"Article 294 {Succession to property, assets, rights, liabilities and obligations in certain cases} As from the commencement of this Constitution - 1. all property and assets which immediately before such commencement were vested in His Majesty for the purposes of the Government of the Dominion of India and all property and assets which immediately before such commencement were vested in His Majesty for the purposes of the Government of each Governor's Province shall vest respectively in the Union and the corresponding State, and 2. all rights, liabilities and obligations of the Government of the Dominion of India and of the Government of each Governor's Province, whether arising out of any contract or otherwise, shall be the rights, liabilities and obligations respectively of the Government of India and the Government of each corresponding State, subject to any adjustment made or to be made by reason of the creation before the commencement of this Constitution of the Dominion of Pakistan or of the Provinces of West Bengal, East Bengal, West Punjab and East Punjab." What are the rights and privileges enjoyed by the Prince of Arcot today under 294 (2)? Under that article GOI has taken over the Assets and Liabilities and Obligations of His majesty as existing at the time of the transfer. Surely, under this clause, the Prince of Arcot does not hold the property he was bequeathed by his majesty?

@ Mr.Raja Chandra.Mr. Sumer Chauhan. Splendid write up and comment!

Tamil Nadu is the successor state to Madras Presidency. It was the obligation of Madras Presidency to comply with the Letters Patent issued by Queen Victoria. Thus under Article 294(2) , it becomes incumbent upon the Government of India and the Government of each corresponding State to honor those obligations!