Difference between revisions of "Life in India"

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***includes a segment at 3.16 on the Khatnaoo, an inflatable bullock skin used for water travel (may also be called a Dareyi)
 
***includes a segment at 3.16 on the Khatnaoo, an inflatable bullock skin used for water travel (may also be called a Dareyi)
 
**[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSZWImTqW5s The British Empire and India (part 2 of 2)]
 
**[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSZWImTqW5s The British Empire and India (part 2 of 2)]
===Means of transport===
 
*[https://archive.org/stream/howworldtravels00meth#page/32/mode/2up "Journeys Through India"] page 32  ''How the World Travels'' by A. A. Methley  1922 Archive.org
 
*[http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15799coll123/id/78892/rec/156  Photograph: Missionary being taken up hill on a litter [dandy<nowiki>]</nowiki>, Darjeeling, ca.1890] Photographs from Scottish Missions, the National Library of Scotland. USC Digital Library. [http://www.archive.org/stream/hobsonjobson029985mbp#page/n349/mode/2up Dandy, dandi] page 296 ''Hobson Jobson'' 1903 (first published 1886) Archive.org 
 
*Photographs  showing a Palkee, Palki, Palanquin, with Bearers:  [http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ggbain.00366/ Palanquin, India] Library of Congress. [http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12825SX1354O1.90703&profile=all&source=~!siarchives&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!58937~!41&ri=1&aspect=subtab157&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Calcutta&index=.GW&uindex=&aspect=subtab157&menu=search&ri=1#focus Palkee, Calcutta]. Smithsonian Institution. Click image to enlarge. Undated, before 1903. [http://www.oldindianphotos.in/2011/03/four-men-carrying-palkee-palanquin.html Four men carrying a Palkee (Palanquin) c 1870s] Old Indian Photos.
 
**Post-Masters were  tasked with assisting travellers going from one place to another by 'laying the dawk' for them upon request and on due payment.<ref>
 
Kolhatkar, Arvind [http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ/2015-05/1431529726 Laying the Dawk - Part 2] ''Rootsweb India-British-Raj Mailing List'' 13 May 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2015</ref> This referred to appointing relays of bearers to be ready on certain nights, at certain stations by which the traveller passed passed. "Five men carry the palkee, four more attend as reserves to take their turn, two carry tin petarrahs, or boxes slung on a pole, and two carry torches".<ref> [https://books.google.com.au/books?id=9LIRAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22laying%20the%20dawk%22&pg=PA16 "A Tiger Tale"] page 16  ''Warne’s Home Annual 1868'' Google Books.</ref> [https://archive.org/stream/hobsonjobson029985mbp#page/n351/mode/2up Dawk/dak],meaning Post,  page 299 ''Hobson Jobson''.  The word survives in dak bungalow, a traveller's rest house. Routes, estimates of times, costs etc are included in [https://books.google.ca/books?id=GZMRAQAAIAAJ&pg=PR6 ''‪Itinerary and Directory for Western India: being a collection of routes through the provinces subject to the Presidency of Bombay, and the principal roads in the neighbouring states''] by Captain John Clunes 12th Regiment Bombay Native Infantry 1826‬.  Google Books
 
**[https://archive.org/stream/glimpsesofoldbom00dougrich#page/148/mode/2up “Across India in a Palkee” [in 1845]<nowiki>]</nowiki> page 149 ''Glimpses of Old Bombay and Western India, with other papers'' by James Douglas  1900 Archive.org.  Article with images: [http://oldphotosbombay.blogspot.com/2011/02/bombay-to-calcutta-18251400-miles-in-25.html "Bombay to Calcutta ...1,400 Miles In 25 Days, in a Palanquin...] Old Photos,Bombay
 
*[http://www.archive.org/stream/hobsonjobson029985mbp#page/n389/mode/2up Ecka/ekka] page 336 ''Hobson Jobson''. A small one horse  carriage. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekka_(carriage) Ekka (carriage)] Wikipedia. [http://www.archive.org/stream/hobsonjobson029985mbp#page/n459/mode/2up  Hackery]  page 407 ''Hobson Jobson''. Bullock cart used for goods and materials, or in some parts of India equivalent to an ekka.[http://www.archive.org/stream/hobsonjobson029985mbp#page/n983/mode/2up Tonga/tongha]  page 930 ''Hobson Jobson''. A carriage drawn by a pair of ponies or oxen.
 
**[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vintage_photo_of_an_Ekka_(Horse_cart)_in_the_1880s.JPG Photograph: An ekka native 4 passenger omnibus]  c 1880s Wikimedia
 
**[https://www.flickr.com/photos/13305961@N00/3920409573/in/photostream/ Photograph: No 28 ‘Ekka' with passenger and baggage, coming from Cashmere (Kashmir) to Murree]  probably taken 1901-1903 flickr.com This was No 28 of a series of stereoscopic views  and  a description of this photograph appears on [https://archive.org/stream/indiathroughste00ricagoog#page/n107/mode/2up page 100] ''India through the stereoscope : a journey through Hindustan'' by James Ricalton 1907 Archive.org
 
**[https://books.google.com.au/books?id=3MefAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA56 Photograph: An ekka, an ox-drawn cart c 1914 at Belgaum] page 56 ''Chota Sahib... You've Had a Busy Day'' by Charles Nida Google Books
 
**[http://www.oldindianphotos.in/2010/10/indian-men-in-ox-cart-date-unknown.html Photograph: Indian Men in Ox Cart [drawn by a pair of oxen<nowiki>]</nowiki>] oldindianphotos.in. [http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!58605!0 A bullock Ekka (Indian carriage & pa[ir?<nowiki>]</nowiki>] 1862  National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Museum.
 
**[http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00glossarydata/terms/ekka/ekka.html Images of ekkas and other carts] from [http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00glossary/index.html#index Early Modern India: a Select Glossary] Professor Frances Pritchett.
 
**Description of journeys from  ''Lights & Shades of Hill Life in the Afghan and Hindu Highlands of the Punjab, a Contrast''  by F St J Gore 1895 Archive.org
 
***[https://archive.org/stream/lightsshadesofhi00gore#page/170/mode/2up/search/ekha Description of a trip in an ekha], page 170
 
***[https://archive.org/stream/lightsshadesofhi00gore#page/254/mode/2up Description of a trip on a mail tonga, from Kohat], page 254
 
*Inflated animal skins
 
**The Khatnaoo, an inflatable bullock skin used for water travel (may also be called a Dareyi)<ref>Shiraz, Richard [https://in.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/apnahimachal/conversations/messages/1159 kundan from harsi]  Apna Himachal Yahoo group July 14, 2005. Retrieved 24 May 2015</ref>
 
***C 1857 Illustration:  [https://archive.org/stream/cavalryexperien00ouvrgoog#page/n153/mode/2up  page 125] ''Cavalry Experiences and Leaves from My Journal'' by Colonel H A Ouvry 1892 Archive.org
 
***[https://archive.org/stream/lightsshadesofhi00gore#page/n220/mode/1up Photograph: Senais on the Sutlej] facing page 122, with a [https://archive.org/stream/lightsshadesofhi00gore#page/120/mode/2up description], page 121, ''Lights & Shades of Hill Life in the Afghan and Hindu Highlands of the Punjab, a Contrast''  by F St J Gore 1895 Archive.org. With photographs by the author.
 
***[http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/p15195coll29/item/62 Crossing the Sutlej near Simla upon inflated animal skins] c 1905 University of Houston Digital Library. From  ''India Illustrated: Being a Collection of Pictures of the Cities of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, Together with a Selection of the Most Interesting Buildings and Scenes throughout India'',  published by Bennett, Coleman, & Co., publishers of the English language newspaper ''Times of India'', c 1905.
 
***[http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/photocoll/i/019pho000000181u00035000.html Stereoscopic photograph of inflated bullock skin boat, or dreas, at the side of the river Sutlej] (British Library). Image 35, with a description , [https://archive.org/stream/indiathroughste00ricagoog#page/n129/mode/2up page 123] ''India through the stereoscope : a Journey through Hindustan'' by James Ricalton 1907 Archive.org
 
****Further  images, possibly taken at the same time by James Ricalton, but not named, from calisphere, University of California, and others: [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt1v19r0zr/?order=2&brand=calisphere Crossing Sutley in bullock-skin boats. India], [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt667nd6cs/?order=2&brand=calisphere Ferry boats of Bullock Skins on the Sutley River in the Himalayas, India], [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt4t1nd5zd/?order=2&brand=calisphere Boatmen - Sutley River. India], Two versions of  Inflated Bullock Skins Used for Ferry Boats on Sutlej River in Punjab, India: [http://monk.radford.edu/cdm/ref/collection/keystone/id/439 Radford University Digital Collections], [http://library24.library.cornell.edu:8280/luna/servlet/detail/CUL_KAR~1~1~6091~100437:Inflated-Bullock-Skins-for-Ferry-Bo Cornell University Library], [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt3t1nd50m/?order=2&brand=calisphere Boatman leaving Sutley River and carrying home boats, India].
 
*** See Youtube video above "The British Empire and India (part 1 of 2)". Includes a segment at 3.16 on the Khatnaoo.
 
** A smaller  inflated sheepskin, usually used as a water-carrier's bag: [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951001679470b?urlappend=%3Bseq=121 Illustration: Our Bath] [swimming pool] with a description on [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951001679470b?urlappend=%3Bseq=124 page 124] of an inflated sheep’s hide, used for fun in the pool.  '' "Curry & Rice," on Forty Plates, or, The Ingredients of Social Life at "Our Station" in India'' by‬ George Francklin Atkinson 1858 Hathi Trust. Note: Illustration can be rotated.
 
  
 
==Recommended Reading==
 
==Recommended Reading==

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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 Passage to India

Library.gif 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.

“Account of a Journey from Basra to Aleppo in 1748” by Gaylard Roberts from The Desert Route to India by Douglas Carruthers from Sylvia Volk’s Page of Asia, now archived
Sample pages from The Desert Route to India edited by Douglas Carruthers 1929. Google Books

Work

Historical books online

Marriage and children

  • 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.
  • 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).
  • 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
  • "Peshawar Remembered" by Walter Reeve (born 1934) whose father was in the Indian Army, and later the Pakistan Army. 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.com.pk 6, 13 and 20 November 2005, now archived websites.
  • Photograph of “My mother being carried through foothills of Himalayas” from photographs of Janet MacLeod Trotter Enlarged version (archived)

Historical books online

Life in the Bungalows

See also Food and Drink

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

Imperial Diversions: The Club, the Hills, the Field

Historical Books Online

Railway Life

Indo-British Relations

Departure and Connections

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

Miscellaneous

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