The Two Worlds of Colonel Skinner, 1778-1841
Among military adventurers who have served in India, Mildred Archer writes, none was more dashing than the half-Indian leader of the famous Irregular Cavalry Corps known as Skinner’s Horse.
At the end of the eighteenth century and in the early years of the nineteenth, large parts of India were politically unstable and administratively disorganized. The Mughal Empire had gradually crumbled, and the Emperor at Delhi was a pathetic figure, endeavouring to keep up a pretence of dignity without any real power beyond his own palace. British rule was steadily being extended in many regions of India; but as yet the three Presidencies of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta were separated by unsettled areas, where Indian rulers struggled to exert control.
For the inhabitants of these parts, it was a “time of troubles”; communications had broken down, villages were isolated, while dacoits roamed the countryside. In central India, especially, there was continual warfare; for the vigorous Marathas under Madho Rao Sindia were endeavouring to gain supremacy and dominate the Emperor in Delhi. From 1785 onwards, Delhi was virtually under Maratha rule, for Sindia was Deputy Regent of the Empire and in control of both Delhi and Agra.
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