Mark Twain in Lucknow and his impressions of 1857

Mark Twain the famous American author and humorist embarked on a year-long, around-the-world lecture tour in July 1895. His itinerary included countries like North America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, India, Mauritius, South Africa, and England among others. Twain’s three months spent in India became the center piece of his 712 -page book ‘Following the Equator’ published in 1897.

Mark Twain - the man himself

"The voyage would furnish a three weeks’ holiday, with hardly a break in it. We had the whole Pacific Ocean in front of us, with nothing to do but do nothing and be comfortable." (Chapter I)

Twain's 'Following the Equator' is a social commentary in which he is critical of racism towards Blacks, Asians, and Indigenous groups. Twain also writes about the oppressive imperialism in the British Empire.

The cover page 'Following the Equator'

Even before Twain reached India he had got a flavor of the Indian life and people through his discussions with different people he met en-route like ‘a gentleman who had served on the staff of the Viceroy of India’ or ‘a missionary from India’. The later introduced him to the miracles of the Indian god Hanuman who “strode fifteen hundred miles, to the Himalayas, and took upon his shoulder a range of those lofty mountains two hundred miles long, and started with it toward Ceylon.” (Chapter XII) The stage was being set for him.

An illustration showing Hanuman with "divine strength into his muscles"

Once in India, Twain making his way through Bombay ("a bewitching city"), Allahabad, Benares, and Calcutta, finally reached Lucknow which he described as "a city... most conspicuous of the many monuments of British fortitude and valor that are scattered about the earth." The first experience he has of Lucknow is that of the "pitiless" heat of the plains which "were destitute of grass, and baked dry by the sun".

Of the two chapters in the travelogue in which Twain writes collectively about his visit to Lucknow, Cawnpore and Agra, he has barely spoken about the events in Lucknow upon his own visit. Instead he goes into details of the events of the 1857 Mutiny. The events of 1857 had clearly left a great impression on him. Later in the chapter he does finally pauses stating "the details of this tremendous episode are too familiar to the reader to need repeating here". 

The only two places he mentions to have visited while at Lucknow were the Residency and a "Club's Indian Palace". At the later he dined with a survivor of the 1857 events, who for him was a "link to connect the present with so ancient an episode as the Great Mutiny".

The Residency - picture from Twain's 1897's ‘Following the Equator’

“The Residency ruins are draped with flowering vines, and are impressive and beautiful. They and the grounds are sacred now, and will suffer no neglect nor be profaned by any sordid or commercial use while the British remain masters of India. Within the grounds are buried the dead who gave up their lives there in the long siege.” (Chapter LIX)

The Residency - picture from Twain's 1897's ‘Following the Equator’

Twain had been reading before his visit to the Residency gardens, "I knew by Lady Inglis' diary...". He found the ruins all too familiar: "at the Residency I was so familiar with the road that I could have led a retreat over it myself".

Bailie Guard - picture from Twain's 1897's ‘Following the Equator’

"as soon as I was within the battered Bailie Guard and turned about to review the march and imagine the relieving forces storming their way along it..." (Chapter LIX)

The hundred years rule prophecy made the native soldiers firmly believe that the end of the British power was imminent. He wittily observes that the "Indian is open to prophecy at all times: argument fail to convince him, but not prophecy". He felt that the "old men" in the high Army positions were too obstinate to listen to the rumblings of the native soldiers. But in the long military history of England, the "crushing" of this revolt is the greatest episode. Even with countless odds the English had fought this "most unpromising fight" with a great resolution.

Twain quotes extensively of the Sir G. O. Trevelyan's "incidents of the massacre" and speaks of the hardships that women and children had to go through. From all that happened "there is not a dull place anywhere in the great story".

The Mosque alongside Begum Kothi - picture from Twain's 1897's ‘Following the Equator’

The Residency - picture from Twain's 1897's ‘Following the Equator’

Also have found this interesting write up on Twain's Mutiny narrative in 'The Routledge Encyclopedia of Mark Twain'

The events of 1857 and specially those in Lucknow have always captured the curiosity of many - Mark Twain was also not left behind. Even the gap of almost 40 years had not dulled the events for him.