The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company

by William Dalrymple

‘As they entered the fortress, they fell on the soldiers, half of them asleep, some awake in their improvised sniper-holes,’ wrote the historian Mohammad Ali Khan Ansari. ‘They killed many, though a few crawled to safety in corners.’ The sepoys then opened the west gate of the citadel and let in the remainder of their forces who were waiting outside. Again they divided into two columns and advanced along the road to the Diwan quarter and its market. The city governor was in the citadel, and as soon as he realised the disaster that was unfolding, rushed with his troops to confront the English, and met them near the bazaar. Here there were heavy casualties on both sides. In the first moments, one of the Governor’s commanders bravely pressed forward and was wounded by a fierce volley of grape shot. The rest of the troops, seeing this, stampeded and fled. The Governor had no choice but to escape by the Eastern Gate, hoping to reach Mir Qasim in Monghyr and bring him news of the coup. His wounded commander meanwhile managed to reach the [Mughal] Chihil Sutun palace [within the fort] and bar the gate behind him, to sit it out and wait for another day on which to fight. The English now had the city in their hands. Their army scum – dark, low-caste sepoys from Telengana – set about plundering goods from shops, dispersing across the city, pillaging the homes of innocent citizens.