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Mountstuart Elphinstone (6 October 1779 – 20 November 1859) was a Scottish
statesman
A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level.
Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to:
Newspapers United States
* ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...
and historian, associated with the government of
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
. He later became the
Governor of Bombay
Until the 18th century, Bombay consisted of seven islands separated by shallow sea. These seven islands were part of a larger archipelago in the Arabian sea, off the western coast of India. The date of city's founding is unclear—historians tr ...
(now
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
) where he is credited with the opening of several educational institutions accessible to the Indian population. Besides being a noted administrator, he wrote books on India and
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. His works are one the pertinent examples of the colonial historiographical trend.
Early life
Born in
Dumbarton
Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990.
Dumbarton was the ca ...
,
Dumbartonshire
Dunbartonshire ( gd, Siorrachd Dhùn Breatann) or the County of Dumbarton is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Dunbartonshire borders Per ...
(now
Dunbartonshire
Dunbartonshire ( gd, Siorrachd Dhùn Breatann) or the County of Dumbarton is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Dunbartonshire borders P ...
) on 6 October 1779, educated at the
Royal High School and raised a member of the Church of England. He was the fourth son of the 11th
Baron Elphinstone, by Anna, daughter of
Lord Ruthven, in the peerage of
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. Having been appointed to the civil service of the
British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
, of which one of his uncles was a director, he arrived at Calcutta (now Kolkata) early in 1796 where he filled several subordinate posts. In 1799, he escaped massacre in Benares (now
Varanasi
Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world.
*
*
*
* The city has a syncretic t ...
) by the followers of the deposed
Nawab of Awadh
The Nawab of Awadh or the Nawab of Oudh was the title of the rulers who governed the state of Awadh (anglicised as Oudh) in north India during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Nawabs of Awadh belonged to a dynasty of Persian origin from Nishapu ...
Wazir Ali Khan
Wazir Ali Khan (19 April 1780 – 15 May 1817)
was the fourth Nawab wazir of Oudh from 21 September 1797 to 21 January 1798, and the adopted son of Asaf-Ud-Daulah.
Life
He was the adopted son of Asaf-Ud-Dowlah, who had no son. He adopted a ...
. In 1801 he was transferred to the Diplomatic Service where he was posted as the assistant to the British resident
Josiah Webbe
Josiah Webbe (April 1767 – 9 November 1804) was an English East India Company servant who worked as Chief Secretary at Madras and as a Resident at Mysore and later in the court of the Maharaja of Scindia.
Webbe was the son of George Webbe of N ...
at the court of the
Peshwa
The Peshwa (Pronunciation: e(ː)ʃʋaː was the appointed (later becoming hereditary) prime minister of the Maratha Empire of the Indian subcontinent. Originally, the Peshwas served as subordinates to the Chhatrapati (the Maratha king); later, ...
ruler
Baji Rao II
Shrimant Peshwa Baji Rao II (10 January 1775 – 28 January 1851) was the 13th and the last Peshwa of the Maratha Empire. He governed from 1795 to 1818. He was installed as a puppet ruler by the Maratha nobles, whose growing power prompted him ...
.
Envoy
In the Peshwa court he obtained his first opportunity of distinction, being attached in the capacity of diplomatist to the mission of
Sir Arthur Wellesley
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister o ...
to the
Marathas
The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a M ...
. When, on the failure of negotiations, war broke out, Elphinstone, though a civilian, acted as virtual ''
aide-de-camp'' to Wellesley. At the
Battle of Assaye
The Battle of Assaye was a major battle of the Second Anglo-Maratha War fought between the Maratha Empire and the British East India Company. It occurred on 23 September 1803 near Assaye in western India. An outnumbered Indian and British forc ...
, and throughout the campaign, he displayed rare courage and knowledge of tactics such that Wellesley told him he ought to have been a soldier. In 1804, when the war ended, Elphinstone was appointed British resident at
Nagpur
Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...
.
This gave him plenty of leisure time, which he spent in reading and study. Later, in 1807, he completed a short stint at
Gwalior
Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the s ...
.
In 1808 he was appointed the first British
envoy
Envoy or Envoys may refer to:
Diplomacy
* Diplomacy, in general
* Envoy (title)
* Special envoy, a type of diplomatic rank
Brands
*Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft
*Envoy (automobile), an automobile brand used to sell Br ...
to the court of
Kabul
Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...
, Afghanistan, with the object of securing a friendly alliance with the
Afghans
Afghans ( ps, افغانان, translit=afghanan; Persian/ prs, افغان ها, translit=afghānhā; Persian: افغانستانی, romanized: ''Afghanistani'') or Afghan people are nationals or citizens of Afghanistan, or people with ancestry f ...
against
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
's planned advance on
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. However this proved of little value, because
Shah Shuja was driven from the throne by his brother before it could be ratified. The most valuable permanent result of the embassy was in Elphinstone's work titled ''Account of the Kingdom of Cabul and its Dependencies in Persia and India'' (1815).
[
After spending about a year in Calcutta arranging the report of his mission, Elphinstone was appointed in 1811 to the important and difficult post of resident at ]Pune
Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...
. The difficulty arose from the general complication of Maratha politics, and especially from the weakness of the Peshwas, which Elphinstone rightly read from the first. The tenuous peace between the Peshwas was broken in 1817 with the Marathas declaring war on the British. Elphinstone assumed command of the military during an important crisis during the Battle of Khadki
The Battle of Khadki, also known as or The Battle of Ganeshkhind, took place at modern day Khadki, India on 5 November 1817 between the forces of the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire under the leadership of Appasaheb Bhonsle. T ...
also called Third Anglo-Maratha War
The Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817–1819) was the final and decisive conflict between the English East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India. The war left the Company in control of most of India. It began with an invasion of Maratha te ...
and managed to secure a victory[ despite his non-military background. As reparations, Peshwa territories were annexed by the British. Elphinstone became the Commissioner of the Deccan in 1818.
]
Governor
In 1819, Elphinstone was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Bombay, a post he held until 1827. During his tenure, he greatly promoted education in India, at a time when opinion in Britain was against educating the "natives". He may fairly be regarded as the founder of the system of state education in India. One of his principal achievements was the compilation of the "Elphinstone code."[ He also returned many lands that had appropriated by the British to the Raja of Satara.
He built the first bungalow in ]Malabar Hill
Malabar Hill (ISO: Malabār Hill ələbaːɾ is a hillock and upmarket residential neighbourhood in South Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Malabar Hill is the most exclusive residential area in Mumbai. It is home to several business tycoons and f ...
during this time, and following his example, many prominent people took up residence here. It soon became a fashionable locality, and remains so to the present.
His connection with the Bombay Presidency
The Bombay Presidency or Bombay Province, also called Bombay and Sind (1843–1936), was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India, with its capital in the city that came up over the seven islands of Bombay. The first mainl ...
is commemorated in the endowment of Elphinstone College
Elphinstone College is one of the constituent colleges of Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, a state cluster university. Established in 1823, it is one of the oldest colleges in Mumbai. It played a major role in shaping and developing the ed ...
by local communities, and in the erection of a marble statue by the European inhabitants.[ However, the ]Elphinstone Road railway station
Parel – Prabhadevi railway station is a Railway station junction which connects the Central line and Western line of Mumbai Suburban Railway. It serves the area of Parel and Prabhadevi in Mumbai, India.
This railway station has seven platf ...
and the Elphinstone Circle, both in Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
city, are not named after him but in honour of his nephew, John, 13th Lord Elphinstone, who later also became Governor of Bombay
Until the 18th century, Bombay consisted of seven islands separated by shallow sea. These seven islands were part of a larger archipelago in the Arabian sea, off the western coast of India. The date of city's founding is unclear—historians tr ...
in the 1850s. One of Karachi's main commercial streets was previously named Elphinstone Street but has been renamed Zaibunnisa Street
Zaibunnisa Street (), still sometimes referred to by its former name Elphinstone Street (), is a thoroughfare in central Karachi, Pakistan that courses through Saddar, the city's colonial-era commercial centre. It is believed to have been renamed ...
.
The township of Elphinstone, Victoria
Elphinstone is a town in Victoria, Australia. The town sits at the junction of the former Calder Highway and the former Pyrenees Highway between Malmsbury and Castlemaine near Taradale and Chewton. Its local government area is the Shire of ...
, Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, was named after him. The suburb of Mount Stuart, Tasmania
Mount Stuart is a suburb of Hobart that lies on a ridge that extends from a foothill of Mount Wellington, known as Knocklofty.
History
The original owners of the land, upon which Mount Stuart is built, were known as Mouheneenner band of the So ...
, Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, and its main road, Elphinstone Road, were also named after him.
There is a statue of him in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...
in London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
Return to Great Britain
Returning to Britain in 1829, after an interval of two years' travel, Elphinstone continued to influence public affairs,[ but based in England rather than Scotland. Nevertheless, he was elected a Fellow of the ]Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...
in 1830 with his proposer being Sir John Robison.
He twice refused appointment as Governor-General of India
The Governor-General of India (1773–1950, from 1858 to 1947 the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, commonly shortened to Viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom and after Indian independence in 1 ...
, preferring to finish his two-volume work, ''History of India'' (1841). He died in Hookwood
Charlwood is a village and civil parish in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England. It is immediately northwest of London Gatwick Airport in West Sussex, close west of Horley and north of Crawley. The historic county boundary between Surr ...
, Surrey, England, on 20 November 1859. He is buried in Limpsfield
Limpsfield is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs close to Oxted railway station and the A25. churchyard. There is also a memorial to him in St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...
.
James Sutherland Cotton
James Sutherland Cotton (born 17 July 1847 at Cooner, Madras; died 10 July 1918 at Salisbury) was a British man of letters. He edited ''The Academy'' and the wrote and compiled various books and publications on Indian life and history.
Biography
...
later wrote his biography as part of the Rulers of India series
The ''Rulers of India'' was a biographical book series edited by William Wilson Hunter and published from the Clarendon Press, Oxford. Hunter himself contributed the volumes on Dalhousie (1890) and Mayo (1891) to the series.
Background
William ...
in 1892.
The historian James Grant Duff
James Grant Duff (8 July 1789 – 23 September 1858) was a British soldier and historian from Scotland, who was active in British India.
Early life
Born James Grant, Duff was the eldest son of John Grant of Kincardine O'Neil and Margaret Miln D ...
named his son after Elphinstone.
Published works
*
*
*
**
*
See also
* Asiatic Society of Bombay
The Asiatic Society of Mumbai (formerly ''Asiatic Society of Bombay'') is a learned society in the field of Asian studies based in Mumbai, India. It can trace its origin to the Literary Society of Bombay which first met in Mumbai on 26 November ...
* Horniman Circle Gardens
The Horniman Circle Gardens is a large park in South Mumbai, South Mumbai, India, which encompasses an area of 2½ acres (10,100 m²). It is situated in the Fort district of Mumbai, Mumbai, and is surrounded by office complexes housing the coun ...
References
Bibliography
*
Further reading
*
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External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Elphinstone, Mountstuart
1779 births
1859 deaths
People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh
Scottish diplomats
Governors of Bombay
Scottish Indologists
19th-century Scottish people
19th-century British historians
People from Dumbarton
Scottish educational theorists