Every case
that comes before a regimental court involves, or is supposed to
involve, the interest or feelings of some one or other of their
companions; and the question which the deponent asks himself is-not
what religion, public justice, the interests of discipline and order,
or the wishes of his officers require, or what would appear manly and
honourable before the elders of his own little village, but what will
secure the esteem, and what will excite the hatred, of his comrades.
This will often be downright, deliberate falsehood, sworn upon the
Koran or the Ganges water before his officers.
Many a brave sepoy have I seen faint away from the agitated state of
his feelings, under the dread of the Deity if he told lies with the
Ganges water in his hands, and of his companions if he told the
truth, and caused them to be punished. Every question becomes a party
question, and the 'point of honour' requires that every witness shall
tell as many lies about it as possible.[20] When I go into a village,
and talk with the people in any part of India, I know that I shall
get the truth out of them on all subjects as long as I can satisfy
them that I am not come on the part of the Government to inquire into
the value of their fields with a view to new impositions, and this I
can always do; but, when I go among the sepoys to ask about anything,
I feel pretty sure that I have little chance of getting at the truth;
they will take the alarm and try to deceive me, lest what I learn
should be brought up at some future day against them or their
comrades.
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