Life in India
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The structure, and some of the contents, of this article follows the website British Voices from South Asia 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
Guides
- 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 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
- 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 Hand-book to the Bengal Presidency, and Western Provinces of India 1860 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 Archive.org. Tenth Edition (reprinted) 1920 (originally published 1918) Hathi Trust.
- Pdf downloads, Digital Library of India: 1919 Fifteenth Edition 1938 17th Edition.
- 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
- Bygone days in India by Douglas Dewar 1922. Archive.org
The Passage to India
The FIBIS Google Books Library has books tagged: Overland Route Travel |
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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
- 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. 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. Witold Glinski's escape to freedom in India
Historical books online
- British Routes to India by Halford Lancaster Hoskins 1928. Pdf download, Digital Library of India
- 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
- "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)
- 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 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
- British women married to Indian men.
- It is interesting to note that two of the following three couples met in Britain when the future husband was studying.
- 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
- 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. Another version www.pakhtun.com, 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
Historical books online
- "Anglo Indian Life: Marriages, Elopements and Disappointments", page 12 The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and Its Dependencies, Volume 29 1839
- 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.
Life in the Bungalows
See also Food and Drink
- "‘Our hero is a sportsman’: British domestic interiors in 19th century India" British Library blog “Untold Lives” 05 March 2014
- "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
- "“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 "...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. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
- "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.
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.
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
- 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.
- "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
- Sketches of Social Life in India CT Buckland: 1884 considers the lives of differing sectors of society. Source: Archive.org.
- Behind the Bungalow by EHA [Edward Hamilton Aitken] 10th edition 1911. First published 1889. 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 1902 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
- 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.
- 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
- The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj by Dane Kennedy, 1996 University of California Press online edition.
- 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
- "A forgotten sport" by Manohar Malgonkar June 27, 1999 The Tribune Pigsticking.
- Hog Sticking Raj Style! Part I, Part II with extracts from Field Sports in India 1800-1947 by Major General J.G Elliott
- Pigsticking by Major S Nargolkar (Retd) racingworldindia.com
- Photographs: Pigsticking in India pigsticking.com. Photograph: Kadir Cup 1914 Photobucket. The Kadir Cup was an individual pigsticking competition organised by the Meerut Tent Club. 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
- Videos. The Muttra Cup Meeting: India’s Largest Pig-Sticking Contest 1934 1 min 33sec preview British Pathe. The Kadir Cup 1934 Colonial Film (There is no sound). La Kadir Cup 1938 Commentary in Italian. YouTube
Historical Books Online
- Glimpses of Old Bombay by James Douglas, JP has a section on Bombay Clubs and can be found at Archive.org.
- Oriental Field Sports Volume 1 by Captain Thomas Williamson 1807 With coloured illustrations. Oriental Field Sports Volume 2 with illustrations 1808 Google Books.
- Sketches of Indian Field Sports: with Observations on the Animals by Daniel Johnson 1827 Google Books
- The Old Forest Ranger, or, Wild Sports of India on the Neilgherry Hills, in the Jungles and On the Plains by Walter Campbell 1853 Google Books
- The Spear and the Rifle; or Recollections of Sport in India, by an Old Shekarree [Henry Astbury Leveson] 1860 Google Books
- The rifle in Cashmere : a narrative of shooting expeditions in Ladak, Cashmere, Punjaub, etc., with advice on travelling, shooting, and stalking : to which are added notes on army reform and Indian politics by Arthur Brinckman, late of HM’s 94th Regt. 1862 Google Books
- Records of sport in Southern India : chiefly on the Annamullay, Nielgherry and Pulney mountains, also including notes on Singapore, Java and Labuan, from journals written between 1844 and 1870 by the late General Douglas Hamilton, Madras Army 1892. Archive.org. With many illustrations by the author.
- Wild Men and Wild Beasts Scenes in Camp and Jungle by William Gordon-Cumming, 1872 Archive.org
- Thirteen Years Among The Wild Beasts Of India: Their Haunts and Habits from Personal Observation: With an Account of the Modes of Capturing and Taming Elephants by GP Sanderson, Officer in Charge of the Government Elephant Catching Establishment in Mysore 6th edition 1907 Archive.org (first published 1878). The author was the model for the Rudyard Kipling character 'Petersen Sahib' in the story Toomai of the Elephants, Scroll down for the article 'Petersen Sahib' by Sir Theodore Tasker The Kipling Journal December 1971 Kipling Society
- The New Shikari at our Indian Stations by Julius Barras 1885 Archive.org Volume 1, Volume 2
- Letters on Sport in Eastern Bengal by Frank B. Simson, Bengal Civil Service (retired) 1886 Archive.org
- Sport in Bengal and How, When, and Where to Seek It by Edward B Baker late Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Bengal. 1887 Archive.org. Hunting.
- Shikar Sketches, with Notes on Indian Field-Sports by J Moray Brown, late 79th Cameron Highlanders, 1887 Archive.org
- Wild Beasts and Their Ways: Reminiscences of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America by Samuel White Baker 1890 Archive.org Volume I Volume II
- Tent Life in Tigerland with which is incorporated Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier : being twelve years' sporting reminiscences of a pioneer (indigo) planter in an indian frontier district by James Inglis 1892. Archive.org. Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier was first published 1878.
- Rifle and spear with the Rajpoots: being the narrative of a winter's travel and sport in northern India by Mrs Alan Gardner (Nora Gardner) 1895 Archive.org
- Jungle by-ways in India; leaves from the note-book of a sportsman and a naturalist by Edward Percy Stebbing 1911 Archive.org. The author spent sixteen years in the Indian Forest Service
- Days and Nights of Shikar by Mrs W W Baillie 1921 Archive.org
- Pigsticking or, Hoghunting: a complete account for sportsmen, and others by Captain R. S. S. Baden-Powell [of Scouting fame] Illustrated by the author. 1889 Archive.org
- Reminiscences of twenty years' pigsticking in Bengal by Raoul 1893 Archive.org
- Modern pig-sticking by A. E. Wardrop, Royal Horse Artillery, with chapters by J. Vaughan, F. W. Caton Jones, M. M. Crawford, and H. E. Medlicott 1914 Archive.org
- The Kadir [Cup] Sketches from My Sketch Book in the Shiny by Snaffles (Charlie Johnson Payne) 1930 Google Books
- 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
Railway Life
- Railways of the Raj Exploring Railway Life in Anglo India
- Among the Railway Folk by Rudyard Kipling 1888. Web edition published by eBooks@Adelaide. Jamalpur E.I.R.
- Article Among the Railway Folk from Kipling.org.uk
- Ajmer 1933-40 Life in a railway colony from An Indian Childhood by Eugene Blanchette born 1933, from his website.
- "Race, Railways and Domiciled Europeans" by Deborah Nixon Transforming Cultures eJournal, Vol 3, No 1 February 2008. UTS ePress, University of Technology, Sydney. Click on “Fullscreen” to view the article.
Indo-British Relations
Departure and Connections
- British Voices from South Asia, LSU - Chapter 6 LSU Interviews, Chapter 6
- 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
Historical books online
- Divide and Quit by Penderel Moon c 1961 Archive.org
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 a collection of oral histories and home videos, as detailed in this Times On Line article. Access the Oral History Collection. The interviews are available to listen to, or a transcript may be read.
- 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)
Also see
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).
References