Did India nearly lose its marbles?
QUESTION
Was there a plan to tear down the Taj Mahal and sell off the marble?
THERE is a persistent story that Lord William Bentinck (17741839), Governor-General of Bengal between 1828 and 1833 and the first Governor-General of India, from 1833 to 1835, had proposed to dismantle the Taj Mahal and sell it for profit.
Bentinck was quite progressive for his time.
He made significant social and educational reforms in India and removed flogging as a punishment in the Indian Army. He is principally remembered for banning the practice of suttee, the immolation of a Hindu widow on the funeral pyre of her deceased husband, in 1829.
On becoming governor, his main charge was to reduce expenses. He made himself extremely unpopular with the instigation of The Half Batta Order, in 1828. Batta was an allowance paid to soldiers of the East India Company, in addition to their ordinary salary, to provide them with money for field equipment and other expenses when on service away from the garrison. The Half Batta Order significantly cut this. Bentinck described this duty as ‘odious’ and expressed his fears that he had ‘incurred universal dislike’.
When he arrived in Agra, home to the Taj Mahal, he hit upon a scheme to raise funds by selling the bath-house of Shah Jahan and several other marble structures at the Agra fort.
These structures were already in poor condition at the time and the project failed to make any serious money.
Nevertheless, a rumour was spread that Bentinck had set his eyes on the Taj Mahal.
Sir William Sleeman, who was instrumental in destroying the Thuggee cult in north and central India, wrote: ‘Had these things fetched the price expected, it is probable that the whole of the palace, and even the Taj itself, would have been pulled down and sold in the same manner.’
The rumour was perpetuated in E. B. Havell’s book Indian Sculpture And Painting (1908), which claimed Bentinck ‘was only diverted because the test auction materials from the Agra palace proved unsatisfactory’.
Historian Percival Spear firmly demolished the myth in 1949, showing clear evidence that the rumours were started by soldiers who had been enraged by The Half Batta Order.
Frustratingly, the story is still routinely stated as fact.
Richard Powell, Edinburgh.
QUESTION Which US states have produced the most and the fewest presidents?
IN ALL, 21 states can boast of being the birthplace of a president. This leaves 29 without, including the third most populous state, Florida. There is a bias favouring the East to the West Coast, as that was the direction of US expansion and admission to the union.
Virginia has been the birthplace of most presidents, boasting eight, including four of the first five: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe. (The second president, John Adams, was born
in Massachusetts.) The other
four were William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, John Tyler and Woodrow Wilson. This is not surprising as Virginia was the first, largest and most prosperous of the British colonies in America. Ohio was the birthplace of seven US presidents: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft and Warren G. Harding. In the early 19th century, Ohio was a populous and central state known for its consensus-building style of politics. New York comes next with five. Vermont is the second smallest state by population but still boasts two presidents, being the birthplace of both Chester A. Arthur and Calvin Coolidge. California, the most populous, has produced just one president, Richard Nixon.
Interestingly, Texas’s two presidents were neither George H. W. Bush (Massachusetts) nor George W. Bush (Connecticut). They were Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson.
Liz Bowen, Chertsey, Surrey.
QUESTION
I read a horror story called How Grim Was My Valley (a play on How Green Was My Valley). What other titles of novels have been twisted to similar effect?
THE KING of the genre must be the excellent Robert Rankin. His novels include East Of Ealing, The Da-da-de-da-da Code, The Lord Of The Ring Roads and I, Robert. He also twists film, musical and play titles for his books: Raiders Of The Lost Car Park, Fandom Of The Operator, Web Site Story, The Witches Of Chiswick, Waiting For Godalming and The Abominable Showman.
Jonathan Peat, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
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