India

India provided a career for Irishmen of all classes and religious denominations. Key figures in the extension of British rule included Laurence Sulivan (1713–86), born in Co. Cork, dominant from the 1750s in the affairs of the East India Company, and the Co. Antrim landowner George Macartney (1737–1806), later Earl Macartney of Lisanoure, who as governor of Madras 1780–5 reformed the financial administration of the territory. During the Indian Mutiny (1857) Sir Henry Lawrence (1806–57), educated at Foyle College, Derry, won fame for his defence of Lucknow. His brother John (1811–79), later viceroy of India 1863–9 and 1st Lord Lawrence, presided over the reimposition of order in the Punjab, in which the Dublin‐born Brig. Gen. John Nicholson (1821–57) played a prominent and ruthless part. Later Sir Michael O'Dwyer (1864–1940), son of a Catholic landed family from Co. Tipperary, was lieutenant governor of the Punjab 1913–20, where he directed the vigorous suppression of protest, including the shooting dead of at least 379 indians at Amritsar (13 Apr. 1919). The Ulster‐born Sir Claude Auchinleck (1884–1981) was the last commander‐in‐chief of the Indian army (1943–7), overseeing the transition to independence and partition. Irishmen also made up a significant proportion of the army rank and file on which British power ultimately depended.

The introduction from 1855 of recruitment by competitive examination opened the way for enthusiastic Irish participation in the Indian civil service. Between 1855 and 1863 24 per cent of recruits were Irish, compared to less than 5 per cent before 1850. Recruitment was reduced after 1864 by new procedures deliberately designed to favour entry from English public schools rather than Irish universities or English ‘crammers’. Between 1880 and 1914 between 5 and 10 per cent of recruits were Irish. Despite this narrowing of overall opportunity, Irish recruitment became over time less aristocratic and more middle class, while the proportion of Catholics rose from 8 per cent in 1855–84 to 30 per cent in 1885–1914.

Indian grievances attracted some attention from the Nationalist party, particularly F. H. O'Donnell (1848–1916), MP for Dungarvan and brother of an Indian civil servant, who in 1883 proposed that Dadabhai Naoroji of the Indian National Congress be found an Irish parliamentary seat. Later there were inconclusive contacts between Congress and Sinn Féin. On the other side Carson and other Unionists gave unreserved support to O'Dwyer's administration of the Punjab, on the grounds that failure to support firm action in India would weaken the struggle against militant nationalism in Ireland.

Bibliography

Cook, S. B. , ‘The Irish Raj: Social Origins and Careers of Irishmen in the Indian Civil Service’, Journal of Social History, 20/3 (1987)