A Narrative of the Insurrection which happened in the Zemeedary of Banaris in the Month of August 1781,

first historical publication printed in Calcutta

The first historical publication to be printed in Calcutta and only the fourth book to be printed by the East India Company's press. It is also the first book printed in Calcutta authored by a Governor-General and the first to be published for political ends.

In 1780 the Rajah of Benares, Chait Singh, stopped paying the tribute levied on him by Warren Hastings and the Company following the Nawab of Awadh's cession of control of Benares to the Company in 1775. Hastings placed Chait Singh under arrest in order to pressure him to submit to the British terms. The Rajah's men then, independently, decided to liberate Chait Singh, defeating two companies of Company soldiers in the process, and whisked him away. There were also rumours that Hastings himself was caught by the Rajah's men and escaped by disguising himself as a woman. What followed was a series of skirmishes that ultimately resulted in Chait Singh's defeat and the instillation of his nephew, Mahip Narayan Singh, as the new Rajah.

On his eventual resignation in 1785 Hastings was impeached by parliament for crimes in India including embezzlement and extortion. The incident in Benares was one of his larger embarrassments and, despite his overall success in standardising the Company's rule in India, added to the accusations that he unnecessarily conducted costly wars and prioritised the concentration of wealth in British Nabobs (including, allegedly, himself). His main opponent who brought the charges was Philip Francis, a career politician whom Hastings had wounded in a duel in India, and it took four whole days for the charges to be read in full.

Hastings produced this work as a vindication of his actions: the first half is a narrative, which reads a lot more like a witness statement than a history, by Hastings in which he provides a very personal perspective on the sequence of events. The second half is then divided up into reproductions of letters, official proceedings, and affidavits produced as events unfolded, most by or to Hastings. After seven years of proceedings against him Hastings was acquitted of all charges but financially ruined by the £70,000 in legal fees.

First edition; large 4to (26.5 x 21.5 cm); bound without half-title, armorial bookplate to pastedown, small marginal tear to last leaf with old repair; nineteenth-century half green calf, marbled boards, all edges speckled red, expert restoration to upper joint and spine extremities, a little rubbed, a very good copy; [6], 70, [2], 213, [1] pp.