Was it even a revolt? Afterwards, the government was doubtful. But in January 1872 the man on the ground in Punjab, deputy commissioner John Lambert Cowan, was sure.
There had been unrest among the minority Namdhari Sikh population – ‘Kukas’, the British called them – in what was a Muslim region. The Muslim slaughter of cattle was a particular flash point. A few days earlier, a mob of some 200 Namdhari had run riot in a neighbouring province. On the 14th, at night, they raided the fort at Malodh. The next morning, 500 of them attempted the town of Malerkotla. Both attempts failed. Some were killed, many were wounded. The rest surrendered or fled.
“Tranquility restored,” Cowan telegraphed when he arrived on the 17th. But then, towards sunset the same day, he ordered 49 of those captured to be strapped backwards over cannon muzzles on the Malerkotla parade ground. A bugler sounded the command to fire, and they were blown to pieces. It was a punishment the British learned from the Mughals.
“I acted from no vain motive, or from cruelty, or a desire to display authority,” Cowan wrote. “The punishment, terrible as it was, was imperatively necessary to prevent the spread of an insurrection.” But the disturbance had already been suppressed. Many of those executed were badly wounded. What kind of crisis was that, the governor-general wanted to know.
An investigation revealed that Cowan had received instructions earlier that day to keep the men in custody. Another letter arrived, mid-execution, urging him to avoid “any hasty act”. It is not clear whether it was summary executions, the disobedience, or his evasive response to questions that sealed Cowan’s fate. But in any event, he was dismissed from imperial service.
Meanwhile Ram Singh, the Namdhari’s de facto leader, had forewarned the authorities of trouble. But, as one official said, the British feared he was playing “a deep game”. In March, he was deported to Rangoon, never to return.
This is an extended version of a piece that first appeared in the January 2024 issue of History Today.
Like this? You can read more of Mathew’s History Today Months Past pieces here.
Mathew Lyons 
Nasty