Life in India

The structure, and some of the contents, of this article follows the website British Voices from South Asia, now archived, which contains material from an exhibition which was held in Hill Memorial Library at Louisiana State University, April 8 to August 6, 1996. The exhibition marked the acquisition by the T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History at LSU of a series of taped interviews with British people who lived and worked in India before Independence in 1947.

Also see Society reading list

FIBIS Resources

• Bombay Golf Club Members

Guides

• Necessaries for a Writer to India, sold by Welch and Stalker…London c 1799. A Broadsheet (one page). Google Books
• The East India Vade-Mecum or Complete Guide To Gentlemen Intended for The Civil, Military or Naval Service of The Hon. East India Company by Captain Thomas Williamson 1810 Google Books Volume 1. Volume 2
• The General East India Guide And Vade Mecum: For The Public Functionary, Government Officer, Private Agent, Trader Or Foreign Sojourner, In British India, And The Adjacent Parts Of Asia Immediately Connected With The Honourable The East India Company . Being a Digest of the Work of the late Capt. Williamson, with many Improvements and Additions by John Borthwick Gilchrist 1825 Google Books
• The hand-book of India, a guide to the stranger and the traveller, and a companion to the resident by J.H. Stocqueler 1844 Archive.org
• Real Life in India, embracing a view of the requirements of individuals appointed to any branch of the Indian Public Service; The Methods of Proceeding to India; and the course of Life in Different Parts of the Country by An Old Resident 1847 Google Books. Contents.
• The Anglo-Hindoostanee Handbook; or, Stranger’s Self-Interpreter and Guide to Colloquial and General Intercourse with the Natives of India 1850 Google Books Contents. Includes vocabulary, weights and measures etc
• A Handbook for India: Being an Account of the Three Presidencies, and of the Overland Route; intended as a guide for Travellers, Officers and Civilians. Part II Bombay by Edward B. Eastwick, published by John Murray 1859 Google Books
• Bradshaw's Railway &c. Through Route and Overland Guide to India, Egypt, and China; or The Traveller's Manual… 1861 Google Books

7 Digitised volumes Volume 1 is for 1858, Volume 7 is for 1869. University of Oxford, England Digital collection.

Bradshaw's Railway Guides were very well known in the UK and were used by Michael Portillo in his Great Railway Journeys television series.

• Bradshaw's Hand-book to the Bengal Presidency, and Western Provinces of India 1860 edition, 1864 edition Google Books
• Bradshaw's Illustrated Hand-Book to the Madras Presidency, and the Central Provinces of India 1864 Google Books
• Bradshaw's Hand-book to the Bombay Presidency and North-Western Provinces of India 1864 Google Books
• Handbook of the Bengal Presidency with an account of Calcutta City by Edward E Eastwick, published by John Murray 1882 Archive.org
• Handbook of the Madras Presidency by Edward B. Eastwick, published by John Murray 2nd edition, (almost entirely rewritten) 1879 Archive.org
• Handbook of the Bombay Presidency with an account of Bombay City by Edward B. Eastwick, published by John Murray 2nd edition, ("for the most part rewritten") 1881 Archive.org
• Handbook of the Panjab, Western Rajputana, Kashmir, and Upper Sindh by Edward B. Eastwick, published by John Murray 1883 Archive.org
• A Handbook for Travellers in India, Burma, and Ceylon published by John Murray, London
  • Third Edition 1898, Fourth Edition 1901, Fourth Edition, Second Impression 1903, Eighth Edition 1911, Tenth Edition 1919 Archive.org. Tenth Edition (reprinted) 1920 (originally published 1918) Hathi Trust.
  • Databases with images on the pay website Ancestry: Murray's Handbook - India, Burma & Ceylon 1926 12th edition; Murray's Handbook- India, Burma and Ceylon 1933 14th edition.
  • Pdf downloads, Digital Library of India: Fifteenth Edition 1938 17th Edition. Note, not currently available.
• “Wintering in India” page 600 Mediterranean winter resorts : a complete and practical handbook to the principal health and pleasure resorts on the shores of the Mediterranean, with special articles on the principal invalid stations by resident English physicians by Eustace A. Reynolds-Ball, Fifth edition 1904 Archive.org. Also contains Volume II, North Africa and Mediterranean Islands from p 331.
• Bygone days in India by Douglas Dewar 1922. Archive.org
• Books in following sections may include initial chapters which could be classified as '"Guides"

The Passage to India

	The FIBIS Google Books Library has books tagged: Overland Route Travel

Also see Maritime Service for descriptions of some sea voyages to India.

The Suez Canal was opened for navigation on the 17 November 1869.

• British Voices from South Asia, LSU - Chapter 1, LSU Interviews, Chapter 1, archived.
• The story of Thomas Waghorn, at one time in the Bengal Pilot Service, who first developed the overland mail route between England and India. MichelHoude.com
• “Three British Travellers to the Middle East and India in the Early Seventeenth Century” by Clifford Edmund Bosworth (April 2005?) Hungarian Academy of Sciences, archived. It includes details of Thomas Coryate, an Englishman who walked from Aleppo in Syria to India, via Iraq, Persia and Afghanistan, arriving at Amjer, Rajasthan in July 1615 after a ten month walk.
• "The Greatest Escape - war hero who walked 4,000 miles from Siberian death camp" 16 May 2009 mirror.co.uk, archived. Witold Glinski's escape to freedom in India. Gliniecki: "I have solid evidence Glinski didn't do The Long Walk" Jan 04, 2011 ExplorersWeb. Obituary: Witold Glinski 03 Jul 2013 The Telegraph.

Historical books online

• The Overland Traveller, or Guide to persons proceeding to Europe via the Red Sea, from India [With maps.] by John Blackburn 1838. British Library Digital.
• Communication with India, China, &c: Observations on the Proposed Improvements in the Overland Route via Egypt with remarks on the Ship Canal,… by John Alexander Galloway 1844 Archive.org
• The Anglo-Indian passage, homeward and outward, or, A card for the overland traveller from Southhampton to Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta : with letters descriptive of the homeward passage by David Lester Richardson 1845 Google Books
• ‪Messrs. Waghorn & Co.'s Overland Guide to India: by three routes to Egypt 2nd edition 1846 Google Books
• The Overland Guide-book; a complete vade-mecum for the overland traveller, to India via Egypt by Captain James Barber HCS 2nd edition 1850. Archive.org
• Orient Line Guide by W J Loftie 3rd edition 1888 Archive.org 5th edition 1894 British Library Digital Collection. Covers the voyage to Ceylon, including Suez, (then on to Australia). This route did not call in at Indian ports.
• Henry S. King & Co.'s Hand book for homeward-bound travellers from India, Australia and the East 1893 National Library of Australia. Includes the telegraph code to be used, as words or phrases more than ten letters are charged double.
• India, Burma, and Ceylon. Information for travellers and residents Published by Thos. Cook & Son 1912 Archive.org.
• British Routes to India by Halford Lancaster Hoskins 1928. Archive.org.
• For travel accounts of the Overland Route, see Travel accounts online

Work

• Camping out in the country with the Collector of Kaira (Bombay Presidency) 1875 from Modern India and the Indians : being a series of impressions, notes and essays, page 30 by Sir Monier Monier-Williams 1891 Archive.org
• British Voices from South Asia, LSU - Chapter 2, LSU Interviews, Chapter 2, archived.
• "How our British rulers 'legalised' bribery" The Hindu.com

Historical books online

• The work and life of the British rulers in India pages 16-17 Memoirs, with a Full Account of the Great Malaria Problem and its Solution by Ronald Ross 1923 Archive.org.

Marriage and children

• “Returns of Marriages at Outstations in the Madras Presidency, Recorded in the Register Book of St Mary’s, Fort St George, between 1783 and 1805” by F.E.P. gives background details of marriages by Civil Residents and Commanding Officers (from The Genealogist, Volume 22 1906, page 248 Archive.org)

• The following letter from Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta, written in 1826 to the Archbishop of Canterbury sets out the situation applying to Army soldiers and permission to marry. In Church records of marriages, marriage is by licence or by banns. In India, at least in this period, marriage by banns included marriage under the conditions mentioned by Bishop Heber. From Narrative of a journey through the upper provinces of India, from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824-1825; (With notes upon Ceylon,) an Account of a journey to Madras and the southern provinces, 1826, and letters written in India, Volume 2 Page 251 Google Books
  • This letter also contains the wording “...while the miseries and dangers to which an unprotected woman is liable in India are such as to make it highly desirable that widows and female orphans should remain as short a time unmarried as possible”. (page 252)
• "Judith Weston and her search for a husband" in 1727-1728. 19 June 2017 British Library’s Untold lives blog.
• Article "The Fishing Fleet: Husband-Hunting in the Raj" by Frances Wilson 30 July 2012 The Telegraph.

Article "Husband hunters of the Raj: How a 'fishing fleet' of 1920s society girls were drawn into sexual intrigues in India even steamier than the climate" by Annabel Venning dated 6 July 2012 MailOnline.

Husband-hunting in the Raj. Listen to, or download a radio interview with Anne de Courcy, journalist and author by presenter Phillip Adams, broadcast Tuesday 31 July 2012 ABC (Australian Broadcasting Commission).

Interview: The Fishing Fleet. Anne de Courcy Anne de Courcy paints a fascinating portrait of 'husband-hunting in the Raj the subject of her new book. (host Paul French) Adelaide Week, March 2013 YouTube.

Anne de Courcy's book is available online, see below.

• "Finding Mermanjan – the star of the evening" Four blogs (linked from the first) by Felicia Line from the British Library’s Untold lives blog, 2 July 2019-22 July 2019. Mermanjan was the only daughter of an Afghan noble, niece of the Amir of Afghanistan Dost Mohammed, who married Thomas Maughan of the Bombay Army. They first met in 1849. Her story was told in the book Mermanjan, Star of the Evening by Gertrude Dimmock published 1970.
• British women married to Indian men.

It is interesting to note that two of the following couples met in Britain when the future husband was studying.

• Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali was English lady of high social rank, who married in England c 1816. See Historical books online.
• Mabel Henderson and her husband Dr. Bharat Chandra Ghosh, Indian Medical Service who were married in Scotland in 1905, including a photograph dated 1928. indianmemoryproject.com
• Photograph: Shanta Bhandarkar as a baby with her English Mother Louisa Bishop, and father Dr. Vasudev Sukhtankar Bombay 1910 indianmemoryproject.com
• Scottish Mona Knight met her future husband an Indian engineer born 1912, while he was studying in London. They travelled back to Bombay in June 1937, (or possibly 1936 per other posts) where she was told it was not done to marry an Indian. However the marriage took place in a Moslem marriage ceremony.

• On the Strength: Wives and Children of the British Army, a Canadian website. Some of the information, particularly in respect of physical work performed, may not be applicable to India.
• The Army Children Archive (TACA) contains information about British Army children and wives, with themes such as Accomodation and On the Move. There are references to India in a number of the themes.
• "Childhood Memories of India" by John Goddard, KRRC. KRRC Association. The author was born in 1923 and lived most of the time until 1933 in India, in cantonments in Lucknow and Calcutta. His father was officers’ mess sergeant in a battalion of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps (the 60th Rifles).
• Peshawar Remembered by Walter Reeve (born 1934) whose father was in the Indian Army, and later the Pakistan Army. khyberlodge.co.uk, now archived. and another version (archived). The recollections of an English schoolboy growing up in Peshawar around the time of partition. "Memories of Murree" also by Walter Reeve. Details of a visit to Murree in 1936 from the author’s father’s memoirs, and the author’s memory of visits in 1948 and 1949. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Scroll down. Jang Newspapers 6, 13 and 20 November 2005, now archived websites.
• Indian Tales by Patrick O‘Meara (born 1930) describes his childhood in India, spent in Army cantonments. His father was in the Royal Indian Army Service Corps (RIASC). Indian-tales.com, now archived.

Historical books online

• Observations on the Mussulmauns of India : descriptive of their manners, customs, habits and religious opinion made during a twelve years' residence in the immediate society by Mrs. Meer Hassan Ali. Edited with notes and an introduction by W. Crooke 1917. The author's background is unclear, other than that she was an English lady of high social rank, who married in England c 1816, see the Introduction. Page ix. Originally published 1832. Volume I, Volume II. Archive.org.
• "Anglo Indian Life: Marriages, Elopements and Disappointments", page 12 ‪The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and Its Dependencies‬, Volume 29 1839
• "Michael Madhu Sudan Dutt and his Anglo Indian Wives" by H W B Moreno, page 191 Bengal, Past and Present, Vol.26 July-Dec 1923. The groom was the Bengali epic poet. Anglo Indian in this context means European. The first marriage was c 1848.
• The author’s English maid receives many marriage proposals. The photograph system pages 15-16 In the Himalayas and on the Indian Plains by C F [Constance Frederica] Gordon Cumming, with Illustrations 1884 Archive.org. Some parts of the book were first published in 1876 in From the Hebrides to the Himalayas.
• A Domestic Guide to Mothers in India, containing particular instructions on the management of themselves and their children by a Medical Practitioner of Several Years Experience in India. Printed in Bombay 1836. Archive.org.
• Hints for the general management of children in India, in the absence of professional advice. Title and authors subsequently varied over time: Goodeve's hints for the general management of children in India 7th edition 1879 Entirely rewritten by Edward A Birch, Surgeon-Major, Bengal Establishment; The management and medical treatment of children in India; Birch's Management And Medical Treatment Of Children In India; Birch's Management And Medical Treatment Of Children In India And The Tropics.

4th edition 1856 by Dr H H Goodeve First published 1844. 7th edition 1879 Entirely rewritten by Edward A Birch, Surgeon-Major, Bengal Establishment. Became Birch’s 1st edition. 2nd edition 1886, 3rd edition 1895, 5th edition 1913 Updated by C R M Green and V B Green-Armytage. All Archive.org. 7th edition 1929 by V. B. Green-Armytage and E.H.Vere Hodge, Archive.org mirror from Digital Library of India; 8th edition 1933 Archive.org version by E. H. Vere Hodge, mirror from Digital Library of India. 9th edition 1933 Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India.

• An Englishwoman in India : the memoirs of Harriet Tytler, 1828-1858 by Harriet Tytler. Edited by Anthony Sattin. 1986. Archive.org Lending Library. Harriet Earle was born into an army family in India Includes her memories of childhood in India and England before the Mutiny. At the age of nineteen she married Captain Robert Tytler. She later was the only woman present at the siege of Delhi, part of the Indian Mutiny, in 1857.
• Two Under the Indian Sun by Jon and Rumer Godden 1966. 2nd file Both files Archive.org Lending Library. The sisters were born 1906 and 1907. For an autobiography of Rumer Godden's later life, see next section.
• See M M Kaye for the autobiographies, published 1990-2000, of M M Kaye, born 1908, author of the best selling novels The Far Pavilions and Shadow of the Moon.
• Out of India : a Raj Childhood by Michael Foss 2001. Archive.org Lending Library.
• Children of the Raj by Vyvyen Brendon 2005. Archive.org Lending Library.

Article "Children of the Raj" by Vyvyen Brendon (2006) from a SAALG Newsletter, British Library archived webpage. How the book came to be written.

• The Fishing Fleet : Husband-Hunting in the Raj by Anne De Courcy 2013 Large Print edition, first published 2012. Archive.org Books to Borrow/ Lending Library.

Life in the Bungalows

• See also Food and Drink
• See also Mandalay for a poisoning of a family by disgruntled servants.
• "‘Our hero is a sportsman’: British domestic interiors in 19th century India" British Library blog “Untold Lives” 05 March 2014. Includes three images by William Tayler from his 1842 publication Sketches Illustrating the Manners & Customs of the Indians and Anglo-Indians, one of which "The Young Lady's Toilet" is also available in another BL blog
• "A daughter of the Empire": Edwardian life in India, 1901-03" on website of Kings College London, looks at the life of Beryl White, a member of the British ruling class. Her father, John Claude White, was the first British Political Officer in Sikkim, refer Photographer - Books
• British Voices from South Asia, LSU - Chapter 3, LSU Interviews, Chapter 3, archived.
• "“A Feeling of Absence from Old England:” the Colonial Bungalow" by William J Glover Home Cultures Volume 1 Issue 1 pages 61-82 2004 tcaup.umich.edu, now archived.
• "The Landour Community Centre Cookbooks: From the 1920s to the 1960s and the present" by Katharine (Kittu) Parker Riddle. An article dated 1 July 2003
• Family budgets in 1920s India by John O’Brien 27 February 2012 British Library Blog: Untold Lives: Sharing stories from the past
• "Little Luxuries: Splendour in the grass" by Vikram Doctor May 24, 2013 The Times of India: The Economic Times. Alternative version with a photograph (now archived) "...a system of cooling that used the roots of a type of jungle grass called khus-khus that ... was "collected on account of their aromatic smell, to form thatch tatties, or screens for the doors and windows.""
• "Beating the heat: Cooling tales from the Raj" by Pran Nevile August 17, 2008 Spectrum: The Tribune
• "Finding a punkah-wallah, and other essential Raj tips" Flora Steel and Grace Gardiner wrote a book in the 1880s “The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook” 10 September 2014 The Budapest Times, now an archived webpage. The book is available online, refer below.
• "The “Politically Correct Memsahib”: Performing Englishness in Select Anglo-Indian Advice Manuals" by S Vimala, M G R College, Hosur. The Rupkatha Journal Volume 5, No. 2, 2013.
• Travelling Home and Empire: British Women in India, 1857-1939 by Alison Mary Blunt. PhD Thesis University of British Columbia 1997. "This study focuses on the British wives of civil servants and army officers who lived in India from 1857 to 1939".
• "Dak Banglas & Their Dark Tales" by Aditi Shah December 12th 2018. Live History India. "The word ‘dak’ is Urdu for 'post' and dak banglas were initially built by the British Indian Public World Department to help postal officers relay the mail in stages."
• "Back then, at the burra bungalows of tea estates" by Moumita Chaudhuri 30 Dec. 2018 The Telegraph India.
• "She-Merchants, Buccaneers and Gentlewomen" by Katie Hickman 8 March 2020. BACSA podcast [audio]. Hickman is the author of She-Merchants, Buccaneers and Gentlewomen : the lives and times of British women in India 1600-1900. 2019. More about the book Maya Jasanoff 17 May 2019 The Guardian.

FIBIS resources

• "A Parsonage in Madras - Elizabeth Sharp’s letters" by Diana Bousfield-Wells FIBIS Journal Number 29 (Spring 2013) pages 38-48. She married Thomas Smith at the end of 1883. The letters from Madras were written in 1884 until she died in December 1884 following childbirth. See FIBIS Journals for details of how to access this article
• "Calvert Smith, the baby from the Parsonage" by Diana Bousfield-Wells FIBIS Journal Number 30 (Autumn 2013) pages 33 -42 . Continuing the previous article. Letters by the Rev Thomas Smith until his death in early 1888, regarding the care of his young son.
• "Memories of my childhood in British India" by Pearline Philomena Berry FIBIS Journal Number 34 (Autumn 2015). page 49. For details of how to access this article, see FIBIS Journals.
• "An English Bride in Edwardian India" by Christine Kendell FIBIS Journal Number 35 (Spring 2016), pages 3-5. For details of how to access this article, see FIBIS Journals.

Historical books online

• The European in India: From a Collection of Drawings by Charles Doyley with descriptions by Captain Thomas Williamson 1813 Google Books. Contains many coloured plates such as "Plate XVII An European Lady and her family, attended by an ayah, or nurse". List of the coloured plates. Archive.org version, K.K. Venugopal Collection, with all images coloured. Probably the publication The Costume and Customs of Modern India, published 1813, from a collection of drawings by Charles Doyley and descriptions by Captain Thomas Williamson, has the same content.
• ‪A Manual of Gardening for Western and Southern India by Robert Riddell 2nd Edition 1856 Google Books
• "Curry & Rice," on Forty Plates, or, The Ingredients of Social Life at "Our Station" in India by‬ George Francklin Atkinson, with Forty Chapters, each with an Illustration (which may rotated in the Hathi Trust Digital Library versions) 1st Edition 1858 Hathi Trust, 2nd Edition 1859 Hathi Trust, 3rd Edition 1860 Google Books. The author was in the Bengal Engineers, and from 1854 was Executive Engineer of the Umballa Division
  • An inflated sheepskin, usually used as a water-carrier's bag: Illustration: Our Bath [swimming pool] with a description on page 124 of an inflated sheep’s hide, used for fun in the pool. Hathi Trust. Note: Illustration can be rotated.
• Wanderings in India: and other sketches of life in Hindostan by John Lang 1859 Archive.org. Missing the one image. British Library Digital Collection. The one image is rotatable. Most of the chapters first appeared in Charles Dickens’s magazine, Household Words. The author was proprietor of a newspaper, the Mofussilite, see Journalist, a novelist, and had practiced as a barrister.
• "Anglo Indian Society", Colburn's United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal Part 1 page 232 of 1860 Part 3, Part 2, page 221 of 1861 Part 2
• Indian Domestic Economy and Receipt Book: comprising numerous directions for plain wholesome cookery, both Oriental and English, with much miscellaneous matter, answering all general purposes of reference connected with household affairs likely to be immediately required by families, messes, and private individuals, residing at the presidencies or out-stations by R. Riddell 5th edition 1860 Google Books
• The Englishwoman in India: Information for Ladies on their Outfit, Furniture, Housekeeping .... and Receipts for Indian Cookery by "a Lady Resident" 1864 Google Books Indian Cookery page 113
• Life in India : a series of sketches showing something of the Anglo-Indian, the land he lives in, and the people among whom he lives by Edward Braddon 1872 Google Books
• Indian Outfits & Establishments : practical guide for persons to reside in India : detailing the articles which should be taken out, and the requirements of home life and management there by An Anglo-Indian 1882 Archive.org. Index. From articles first published in the magazine The Bazaar.
• On Duty under a Tropical Sun : being some practical suggestions for the maintenance of health and bodily comfort and the treatment of simple diseases, with remarks on clothing and equipment for the guidance of travellers in tropical countries by Major S Leigh Hunt Madras Army and Alexander S Kenny 1882 Archive.org. Includes military matters.

Tropical Trials. A Hand-book for Women in the Tropics by Major S Leigh Hunt Madras Army and Alexander S Kenny. 1883 Archive.org.

• Sketches of Social Life in India CT Buckland: 1884 considers the lives of differing sectors of society. Source: Archive.org.
• Chutney Papers: Society, Shikar, and Sport in India by 'C.M., a Bombay-Walla' 1884. Archive.org. Humorous sketches of life on a 'station'. The author is catalogued as Cameron Joseph F.S . MacDowall, who was a doctor, born 1832, (listed on page 467, Roll of the Indian Medical Service 1615-1930 - Volume 2 by Lieutenant-Colonel D. G. Crawford).
• Jottings and Recollections of a Bengal “Qui hye!” by Louis Emanuel [1886] British Library Digital Collection. Includes chapters about servants.
• Behind the Bungalow by EHA [Edward Hamilton Aitken] 10th edition 1911. First published 1889. Archive.org
• The Complete Indian Housekeeper & Cook : giving the duties of mistress and servants, the general management of the house, and practical recipes for cooking in all its branches by F A Steel and G Gardiner, first published 1888. Third Edition 1893, New Edition 1898, New and Revised Edition 1909 Archive.org
• Cow-keeping in India; a simple and practical book on their care and treatment, their various breeds, and the means of rendering them profitable by Isa Tweed 2nd edition 1900, first published 1891. Archive.org

Tweed's Cow-keeping In India 5th edition, revised by S N Sinha, 1931 Archive.org.

• The Englishwoman In India by Maud Diver 1909 Archive.org
• Indian gardening; a manual of flowers, fruits, and vegetables, soils and manures, and gardening operations of every kind in Bengal, the upper provinces, & the hill stations of India by Lieutenant Fred. Pogson.1872 Volume I Flower and Fruit Garden, Volume II the Kitchen Garden (in one volume) Hathi Trust Digital Library
• Flowers And Gardens In India: A Manual for Beginners by Mrs R Temple Wright 4th edition 1902 Archive.org

Mrs. Temple-Wright's Flowers and Gardens in India. With a Hindustant Vocabulary of Gardening and Botanical Terms 7th edition revised and edited by W Burns. 1922. Archive.org

• Indian life in town and country by Herbert Compton, 1904 has six chapters called "Anglo-India Life" from page 183 Archive.org
• The English Bride in India by Chota Mem (Junior Memsahib, [Mrs. C. Lang]) 1909 Archive.org. The author is mentioned in "Cooks of the British Raj: In the Shadows of the Cantonments" from Cynthia Bertelsen’s Gerkins and Tomatoes, now an archived webpage.
• Indian Idylls by Edith E Cuthell 1890 Archive.org. Short stories by the wife of an Army Officer

My Garden in the City of Gardens: A Memory by Edith E Cuthell 1905 Archive.org. Memories of life as an Army Officer’s wife in Lucknow.

• Many Camps : Sketches of Indian Life by Arthur Waltham Howlett 1912, (articles republished from the Manchester Guardian) Google Books, which describe "travel all over the Raj, from Robat on the Persian Border, the Baluchistan desert, to hill stations and jungle rivers, from desert winters to monsoon rains". Howlett was at that time an Indian Army doctor with the Indian Medical Service, (who later changed to the British Army RAMC).
• The Nabobs : a Study of the Social Life of the English in Eighteenth Century India by Percival Spear. Reprint edition 1980, first published 1932, second enlarged edition 1963. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• British Social Life In India 1608-1937 by Dennis Kincaid 1938. Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection.
• A Traveler's Tale : Memories of India by Enid Saunders Candlin 1974. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. The author’s husband was a metallurgist/chemical engineer who worked for the Inspectorate of Armaments in ordnance factories at Ishapore and Ambernath (Bombay Presidency) 1941-46, having been transferred from Hong Kong.
• Plain Tales from the Raj : images of British India in the twentieth century by Charles Allen 1986, first published 1975. 1975 edition. Originally commissioned by, and broadcast on BBC Radio as oral history documentaries. Both editions Archive.org Lending Library.

Raj: a Scrapbook of British India, 1877-1947 by Charles Allen 1977. Archive.org Lending Library.

• Two Monsoons by Theon Wilkinson with drawings by Bill Smith 1976. Archive.org Lending Library. The aim was to provide "an insight into the life and death of Europeans in India in the last three centuries".
• A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep by Rumer Godden 1987. 2nd file Both files Archive.org Lending Library. An autobiography. Rumer Godden (Wikipedia) 1907-1998.
• Women of the Raj by Margaret Olwen Macmillan 1988. Archive.org Lending Library.
• The Ruling Caste: Imperial Lives in the Victorian Raj by David Gilmour 2006, first published 2005. Archive.org Lending Library.
• Indian Notes About Dogs by Major C. 1893. Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India. Full title: Indian Notes about Dogs, their Diseases and Treatment. Compiled by Major C- [Chambers], author of Horse Notes. Earlier edition 1889
• Your Dog In India by Pat Sharpe 1944. Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India.
• Fiction
  • Chronicles of Dustypore; a Tale of Modern Anglo-Indian Society [by H S Cunningham [Henry Stewart], Sir] 1875. Volume I, Volume II Archive.org H. S. Cunningham Wikipedia. Born 1832, he went to India in 1866 as Government Advocate and Legal Advisor to the Punjab, based at Lahore. He became Advocate-General of Madras Presidency 1872 and judge of the Calcutta High Court 1877-1887.

  Review of Chronicles of Dustypore page 73 Sir Henry Stewart Cunningham, K.C.I.E. by Margaret M. Verney 1923 Archive.org.

  • The Simple Adventures of a Memsahib 
by Sara Jeannette Duncan ... With illustrations by F. H. Townsend. 1893 Archive.org

Imperial Diversions: The Club, the Hills, the Field

• Unique collection of Sport images held on Fibiwiki
• Sports in British India You Tube. Short FIBIS video of photographs of sporting events
• British Voices from South Asia, LSU - Chapter 4, LSU Interviews, Chapter 4, archived.
• ‪"British hunters in colonial India, 1900-1947: The Gentleman Hunter, New Technology, and Growing Conservationist Awareness" by Fiona Natasha Mani Pakistaniaat: A Journal of Pakistan Studies Vol. 4, No. 1 (2012) pages 69-87. Pdf download-depending on your browser, may download to your downloads folder.
• English Howdah Pistols, ca. 1846 A howdah is a very large saddle, which was used on the back of an Indian elephant and these pistols were used in emergencies while hunting from an elephant. Antiques Roadshow Archives from the episode Corpus Christi (#1703) (USA) originally filmed August 4, 2012. Howdah pistol Wikipedia. Tiger Tamer: A 12-Bore Howdah Double from the collection of Tony Orr. acant.org.au
• Hunting trip in Coimbatore, India 1920 Photographs taken during Charles Foulkes' big game hunting trip, from "The Serving Soldier" collection, King’s College London
• Indian Elephants in the Service of Man (1938) - amateur film by Jim Corbett You Tube video. Includes hunting by elephant from 9.35 min, including scenes of the hunter's dogs jumping on to the elephant's back.
• "A forgotten sport"
 by Manohar Malgonkar June 27, 1999 The Tribune Pigsticking.
• Pigsticking by Major S Nargolkar (Retd) racingworldindia.com, now an archived webpage.
• Photographs: Pigsticking in India pigsticking.com, now archived. The Kadir Cup was an individual pigsticking competition organised by the Meerut Tent Club. Photograph of the Kadir Cup awarded in 1911 National Army Museum. The Kadir Cup, 1921 Print after Lionel Edwards, 1921. National Army Museum Accession Number NAM. 1956-12-22-1.Photograph: Captain Tuck of the Meerut Tent Club, with his horse, Manifest. 1936 Kadir Cup - The Hog-hunter's Classic Flickr.com. Photograph: Red Cross and veterinarians' elephants at the Kadir Cup 1938 www.lib.msu. Originally published in the Chicago Tribune

The British Library holds the publication Hoghunter's annual, volumes 1(1928)-12(1939), (classified as a Journal) published by The Times Of India Press, Bombay UIN: BLL01008628498 . Also catalogued elsewhere as The Hoghunters' Annual, for which years 1928-1930 are available on the Hathi Trust Digital Library for those with University access.

• Videos. The Muttra Cup Meeting: India’s Largest Pig-Sticking Contest 1934 1 min 33sec preview British Pathe. The Kadir Cup 1934 Colonial Film, (archived version) silent footage 9:50min, original perhaps now in the collection of Bristol Museums Archives, although seemingly not in the catalogue. La Kadir Cup 1938 Commentary in Italian. YouTube
• Bibliography of Tiger Hunting Books shakariconnection.com

Historical books online

• See Hunting accounts online for books about hunting, usually called Sport or Shikar, including tiger hunting and pigsticking.
• Two chapters from Field Sports in India 1800-1947 by Major General J.G Elliott with two chapters on pigsticking by C. R. Temple. 1973. Transcriptions of Chapter 4. "The Early Days" and Chapter 5. "The Tent Clubs".
• Glimpses of Old Bombay by James Douglas, JP, 1900, has a section on Bombay Clubs and can be found at Archive.org.
• John Barleycorn Bahadur: Old Time Taverns in India by Major H Hobbs [Harry] 1944 (2nd edition with Index, first published 1943?) Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection. Some other, but not all, publications by this author, published in Calcutta, are available at the British Library. Author details in photograph description from Canmore, Historic Environment Scotland.
• Sonepore reminiscences. Years 1840-96 by Harry E Abbott 1896. Archive.org. Horse racing at Sonepore (a native state, South-West Frontier of Bengal, now Orissa state)
• A Guide to Training and Horse Management in India, with Hindustanee vocabulary by M. Horace Hayes Archive.org New Edition much enlarged 1878, 6th edition 1905
• Indian Racing Reminiscences by M. Horace Hayes, illustrated by J.K.Ferguson 1883 Archive.org
• Hotch Potch and Kedgeree “being mainly Sir Allan Arthur’s personal experience in the “Land of Humour” in Scotland, India and elsewhere…Also a number of Caricatures and Sketches by Mr F C Macrae and others”. Catalogued 1916 Archive.org, K.K. Venugopal Collection. Includes Royal Calcutta Turf Club stories, and shooting and pig sticking reminiscences.
• Notes on Stable Management in India and the Colonies by Vety-Capt J A Nunn, late Principal Lahore Veterinary College, 2nd edition revised and enlarged with a glossary 1897 Archive.org
• Hints on horses : with short notes on camels and pack animals ; also a few practical suggetions on the training of polo ponies an players, and gymkhana training and racing by Major H P Young, late 4th Bombay Cavalry 3rd edition 1907 Archive.org.
• The Rod in India : being hints how to obtain sport, with remarks on the natural history of fish and their culture, and illustrations of fish and tackle by Henry Sullivan Thomas, Madras Civil Service, Archive.org. 1873 edition, Revised 2nd edition 1881 , Revised 3rd edition 1897

Tank Angling in India author catalogued Henry Sullivan Thomas and catalogued 1887. Archive.org, Granth Sanjeevani Asiatic Society of Mumbai Collection. Note title page and pages of the Preface are missing. Also available to readers in North America etc, on HathiTrust Digital Library.

• Hill Stations of India by Gillian Wright. Photography by Sarah Lock 1991. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library

The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj by Dane Kennedy, 1996 University of California Press online edition.

Railway Life

• Railways of the Raj Exploring Railway Life in Anglo India
• Ajmer 1933-40 Life in a railway colony from An Indian Childhood, now archived, by Eugene Blanchette born 1933.
• "Race, Railways and Domiciled Europeans" by Deborah Nixon Transforming Cultures eJournal, Vol 3, No 1 February 2008. UTS ePress, University of Technology, Sydney. A download to your computer which you may need to locate in your downloads folder. Web cache version.
• "I do not think of Jamalpur as a city..I think of it as a railway colony …bungalow dwellings …and Happy Valley" by Yvonne Eva Le Fort June 15, 2010 MungerJamalpur, now archived. Railway Colony life c 1943-1947.
• Their own worlds: the quirks of life in Railway colonies from Heritage Directorate, Indian Railways. Google Arts & Culture. Images of houses, churches and Railway Institutes in Railway Colonies.

Historical books online

• Among the Railway Folk by Rudyard Kipling, pages 255-282 From Sea to Sea and Other Sketches, Volume II 1938, first published 1888. Jamalpur East Indian Railway,
  • Article "Among the Railway Folk" from Kipling.org.uk

Indo-British Relations

• British Voices from South Asia, LSU - Chapter 5 LSU Interviews, Chapter 5, archived.

Departure and Connections

• British Voices from South Asia, LSU - Chapter 6 LSU Interviews, Chapter 6, archived.
• Lahore: Blood on the Tracks by William Dalrymple 1997. archive of travelintelligence.com. (Another archived version). Also an episode in the 1997 TV documentary series Stones of the Raj
• "The Curious Exclusion Of Anglo-Indians From Mass Slaughter During The Partition Of India". Experiences in India During 1947 of some who went to New Zealand by Dorothy McMenamin in 'The International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies Volume 9, Number 1, 2006.
• Bloody memories for child of the Raj Express and Star dated 30 March 2009. Also see Biographies reading list for more details of Farewell Raj: Witness to End of Empire by Tony Hearne
• Two articles Partition, and Last Days of the Raj by Duncan Allan. The first article is dated May 1, 2014 .Scroll down to the 2nd post dated September 17 2012. The author was in the 2/1st Gurkha Rifles at the time of Partition and witnessed many dead bodies Koi-Hai website.
• Letter: Massacres at the partition of India by F B Manley Wednesday, 20 August 1997 independent.co.uk
• Photograph: August 17, 1947, soldiers from The Royal Norfolk Regiment embark on the S.S. Georgic bound for Britain on the quayside in Mumbai, the first British Army unit to leave Indian soil after the country achieved independence. mid-day.com. Video: British Troops Leave India 1947 British Pathe on YouTube . This video appears to be of the same troops as in the photograph although they are unnamed. They are however sailing on the 'Georgic'

"British Troops Leave" The Glasgow Herald August 18, 1947 Google News

• Sunset on the Raj: The Last to Leave The last British troops to leave India were the 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry on 28 February 1948 at Bombay. britains-smallwars.com
• "How Indian newspapers reported Independence and Partition in 1947" by Shoaib Daniyal August 15, 2015. Scroll.in
• "Cyril Radcliffe: The man who drew the partition line" BBC video.

"This Bloody Line" A film by Ram Madhvani. Cyril Radcliffe was the British lawyer tasked with deciding on the dividing line at Partition. YouTube video.

• "Sir Evan Jenkins and the 1947 Partition of the Punjab" by Farah Gul Baqai Pakistan Journal of History and Culture Vol.XXVII No.1 Jan-Jun 2006. Jenkins became the Governor of the Punjab on April 8, 1946 and held this position until 15 August 1947.

Historical books online

• While Memory Serves by Lieut.-General Sir Francis Tuker. Digital reprint edition reproduced by Sani H Panhwar, originally published 1950. Archive.org. Covers the two years 1946 and 1947, "told by one who watched events from the Headquarters of Eastern Command" of the Indian Army, (he was G.O.C. in C.), including riots and bloodshed in Calcutta, the Punjab and elsewhere.
• [Extract from] The Last of the Bengal Lancers [published 1988] by Brig (Retd) Francis H B Ingall Defence Journal December 1998 defencejournal.com, now archived. The author travelled from India to Pakistan, to work for the Pakistan Army, and comments on the massacres.
• The Last Days Of The British Raj by Leonard Mosley 1960 Archive.org
• Divide and Quit by Penderel Moon c 1961 Archive.org
• The Last Years Of British India by Michael Edwardes 1963 Archive.org.
• Freedom At Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre c 1975 Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India. The events in India in 1947
• Partition And Aftermath: Memoirs of an Ambassador by Kewal Singh 1992. Archive.org version, mirror from Digital Library of India. Also available to read online on Academy of the Punjab in North America.
• Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India by Stanley A. Wolpert 2006 Archive.org Lending Library.
• Farewell Raj by Tony Hearne 2009. Cover includes the extra words Witness to End of Empire. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. He was in the Army Ordnance Corps in India and was discharged August 1947, but due to safety concerns re-enlisted in January 1948, and left India with the regiment some weeks (months?) later. During his time in the Army he witnessed awful scenes. Recommended by Peter Bailey, FIBIS Chairman, in the FIBIS "Journal" no. 22 (Autumn 2009), p. 56, see Biographies reading list.
• For books about Lord Mountbatten, last Viceroy of India, see Governor-General.
• See British India - Historical books online for the publication The Transfer of Power 1942-7, in 12 volumes.
• Fiction
  • The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott, first published in one volume 1976. Published individually 1966-1975. Archive.org Lending Library.

  Consisting of: The Jewel in the Crown.--The Day of the Scorpion.--The Towers of Silence.--A Division of the Spoils

  "Four novels covering the period between the Quit India riots of 1942 and the massacres that accompanied independence and partition in 1947 provide insight into the closing years of British rule in India."

Miscellaneous

• "Identifying Domiciled Europeans in Colonial India: Poor Whites or Privileged Community?" by Dorothy McMenamin The International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies Volume 6, Number 1, 2001. Details four formal oral histories which are lodged at University of Canterbury [N.Z.] Library.
• The University of Cambridge - Centre of South Asian Studies has an online collection of oral histories and home videos.

Access the Oral History Collection. The interviews are available to listen to, or a transcript may be read.

Access the Home video Collection. Approximately 50 individual collections totalling in the region of 80 hours of footage, taken between 1911 and 1956, with probably most from the 1930s.

• Podcast [audio]: The British in India: Three Centuries of Ambition and Experience by Sir David Gilmour, author, whose books include The Ruling Caste and The British in India. Podcast of a BACSA lecture 5 November 2018. BACSA website.
• The San Francisco Minstrels. David Carson and Tom Brown organized a company which toured India 1861-1866. Circus Historical Society: Brown’s Burnt Cork Activity. Scroll down to the entry Carson and Brown.
• Theatres in Ceylon, British Burma and India pages 6-8 Harry Miner's American dramatic directory for the season of 1884-85. Archive.org
• Videos on YouTube
  • BBC News - Witness: The end of British rule in India
  • The British Empire and India (part 1 of 2)
    • includes a segment at 3.16 on the Khatnaoo, an inflatable bullock skin used for water travel (may also be called a Dareyi)
  • The British Empire and India (part 2 of 2)
  • India on Film: 1899-1947 A collection of short YouTube videos from the British Film Institute.
    • Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 1931. Includes "Crossing the river in inflated goat skins" at 0.42 min.

Also see

• Means of Transport‎

Recommended Reading

• This Indian Express article describes the book Mehtars and Marigolds by Barbara Dinner 2009, about four generations of her family from 1874, starting in Simla. This link also discusses the book which has been favourably reviewed in FIBIS Journal no 25 (Spring 2011).