The tragic story of Almas Ali Cawn told in this broadside paints a grim picture of the cruelties of Warren Hastings (1732-1818), first governor general of British India. Hastings met constant opposition in his council and in England, and narrowly escaped recall. He resigned in 1784 and returned to England, where he was charged with high crimes and misdemeanors. Impeached in 1787, his trial dragged on for seven years before he was eventually acquitted.
The poem is gruesome and violent, filled with accusations against Hastings and by extension, against the English. If the original letter was written by an Indian woman, it was translated into English, presumably as indicated on the sheet, by the “late Dr. Ladd” who then set it in blank verse.
Another broadside petition, also attributed to Cawn’s wife, is at the Bodleian Library. The headline reads: “The following is a literal Translation of the Petition, sent by the wife of Almas Ali Cawn, who was lately seized upon and put to Death, for political Purposes in India.”[1] This text is in prose and is simply a woman’s request for mercy for her husband. The language is far less violent; the tone entirely pleading. At the bottom, a footnote states that “this petition was presented by the unhappy woman to the great man, who, after he had perused it, give orders that Almas Ali Cawn, should be immediately strangled.”
This story was told over and over again in the American press, in at least twelve newspapers between 1784 to 1790. It resurfaced in 1813, probably saleable because of anti-English feelings during the War of 1812. The Albany (NY) Argus of March 5, 1813, carried the entire poem and some introductory and closing remarks. Several other newspapers followed suit in 1813, but none of these reports are as full as that on the broadside.
