Dum Dum

Dum Dum
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Presidency: Bengal
Coordinates:	22.62°N 88.42°E
Altitude:	11 m (36 ft)
Present Day Details
Place Name:	Dum Dum
State/Province:	West Bengal
Country:	India
Transport links
Eastern Bengal Railway

Dum Dum was a British cantonment town north of Calcutta that now constitutes a suburb of that city. It was the headquarters of the Bengal Artillery until this transferred to Meerut in 1853.

The Bengal Artillery were at Dum Dum from 1775

The ammunition factory was established in 1846.

The Factory had an establishment for making small arms cartridges, and it was here that trouble over greased cartridges first started. However, ‘Dum Dum bullets’ made since British Army’s Afghan campaign, remained the most well-known product of the factory. By 1858, the various workshops at Dum Dum had merged into the Cartridge and Precision Cap factory.

I S Kanwar in his Memories of Dum Dum throws further light in the matter of ‘greased cartridges’. He writes, ‘In 1853, the headquarters of the Artillery was moved to Meerut as being Central because Dum Dum was considered unsuitable for the purpose any longer. With this change, the cantonment became a store house for Small Arms Ammunition. A new musketry school was opened for providing training in the use of the newly introduced Enfield Rifle. By 1856, greased cartridge gained notoriety. How far these were responsible for lighting the spark of the 1857 revolt is given in more than one version. Before 1856, Indian units were armed with double grooved rifle, the Brown Bess, the cartridges for which were greased and covered with a paper, regarding which there was no suspicion. These weapons were later replaced by the Enfield Rifle, the ammunition for which had been sent from England. When this arrangement ceased, it was replenished with cartridges made in the Ordinance Factory at Meerut, Calcutta and Dum Dum. Apart from preservation, grease was necessary for the lubrication of the cartridges’.

Kanwar further writes, ‘It seems that the Ordinance authorities ordered for supply of tallow, without taking the precaution of specifying the fat composition of it’. Malleson, whose record of the 1857 revolt was first published in 1864, when memories were still fresh, admits the use of the cow-fat as an oversight, for it would have been easy to enter into a contract for a supply of sheep or goat’s fat, to which there would not have been the objections. He also states that no pig-fat was then used in the tallow. Incidentally, this tallow was supplied by Gangadhar Banerjee & Co. to the Fort William Arsenal under a contract for two years with effect from the August 15, 1856. The contract described as ‘Greased Tallow’ at two annas per pound. Colonel Abott, then Inspector General of Ordinance with headquarters at Ichhapore records that ‘quite often, grease and tallow were supplied as separate items. For instance, an indent on the above mentioned contract includes ‘Grease … for Ammunition purpose, Tallow of the purest kind …(for greasing composition for Minie Rifle ammunition)’. However, later indents show these items as just ‘Grease’ or less often as ‘Tallow’ with the added remark ‘Required for Arsenal purpose’.

In mid-January 1857, an incident of far-reaching consequence occurred at Dum Dum in the vicinity of the Ammunition Factory. Kanwar writes, ‘…a low caste Laskar or Magazine man meeting a high caste Sipahi in the cantonment asked him for a drink of water from his lotah. The Brahmin at once replied with an objection on the score of caste, and was tauntingly told (by the Laskar) that caste was nothing, that high caste and low caste would soon be all the same, as cartridges smeared with beef fat and pig’s lard were being made for the Sipahis at the Depots and would soon be in general use throughout the army!’

Kanwar writes: ‘Actually the contamination was to be brought to the very lips of the Sipahis. It was not contemplation but a demonstrative fact and naked truth. So it appealed to the strongest feeling of aversion of the Muslim and the Hindu alike’.

The English quickly took up the matter. On hearing the story, Lieutenant Wright, Commander of the 70th Sipahis detachment at Dum Dum, brought the incident to the notice of the Commandant of the Musketry Depot on January 22, 1857. On the following day, another officer, Major Bontein, reported it to the commanding officer of Dum Dum, who in turn informed the General commanding of the Presidency Division. After satisfying himself regarding the incident, and obtaining the Governor General’s approval, the General gave instructions to all officers to calm the minds of the Indian soldiers at Dum Dum and elsewhere. The Adjutant General of the Army at Meerut was also directed ‘to issue all cartridges free from grease, and to allow the Sepahis to apply with their own hands suitable mixture they might prefer’. Kanwar again writes, ‘Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Ordinance immediately contacted Major Bonteinn, instructor of the Dum Dum Musketry School, who confirmed that until then the suspected cartridges had not been issued to Indian soldiers, either at Dum Dum or other stations in the Presidency Division. It is on record, however, that although the laboratory work on the greased cartridges was done at Dum Dum, they were sent to the Fort William Arsenal, whence they were distributed to units, including those at Dum Dum. Feeling relieved, Colonel Augustus Abbott issued a circular on January 29, 1857, laying down that only tallow of sheep or goats’ fat was to be issued to Indian soldiers’.

Second World War

There was an RAF Base at Dum Dum during WW2. It is now an Indian Air Force Station in Western Air Command and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, which serves nearby Kolkata

British Library holdings

Memories of Dum Dum (Reprinted from Bengal: Past and Present) by Hari Inder Singh Kanwar 1961 The articles originally appeared 1953-1959

There is also an article of the same name in the Journal of The United Service Institution of India Volume LXXXXI No 384 : July 1961

Churches

• St Stephen (Anglican)

External links

• Photograph: Dum Dum Church by Captain R. B. Hill 1850s. Metropolitan Museum of Art New York. Probably Richard Barton Hill 1835-1873, who joined the Bengal Army in 1853.
• Ordnance Factory Dum Dum: History
• RAF Stations- Letter D Scroll down to RAF Dum Dum. Lists the main units based there during WW2

Historical bools online

• "East India Stations No. IX: Dum Dum", page 166 ‪The Saturday Magazine‬, Volume 8 1836 ‪Google Books.Taken from the Asiatic Journal and Bishop Heber’s Journal.‬‬