The Daily Star, Bangladesh
Oct 6 2007
Glimpses of ‘An Anthology of Selected Writings on East Bengal’ from
the ‘India Collection’ at the India International Centre Library,
Delhi
Raana Haider
Introduction
The ‘India Collection’ at the India International Centre Library in
New Delhi earlier constituted the ‘Collection of British Books on
India’ of the British Council, New Delhi. Numbering over 3000 rare
and old books, documents, personal accounts, prints, memoirs, maps
and manuscripts; the ‘India Collection’ consists largely the works of
British authors on India, particularly covering the British period.
The Collection spans the period from the 17th century (the earliest
title is dated 1672) to 1947.
The extracts presented below draw on expansive archival material
pertaining to selective original works in the form of memoirs,
records and travel accounts primarily on nineteenth-century East
Bengal. Rich in topographical and architectural documentation and
social customs the topics include administration, animals,
architecture, climate, customs, geography, lifestyle, mores and
manners and the rulers; by generations of British civilian and
military officers, scholars and traders in India. These ‘voices that
speak’ from a bygone era are an introduction to a larger literary
canvas of the British presence in East Bengal that will be explored
in a forthcoming book.
‘Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian’ by John Beames
Published by Chatto & Windus, London, 1961.
(R.H. Note): John Beames arrived in Calcutta in March 1858 at the age
of twenty-one; as one of the last batch of cadets appointed by the
East India Company. He served in Chittagong from 1878-1879, was
appointed District Magistrate of Balasore and retired from India in
1893. His other accomplishments were a translation from the ‘Turki of
Babar’s Memoirs’ and an unfinished ‘Historical Geography of India’.
Extract:
`We were supremely unhappy at Chittagong. In fact we spent there two
of the most miserable years of our existence. The contrast to Cuttack
where we had been so happy, was cruel. Sir Ashley Eden, the
Lieutenant-Governor, was unfriendly to me and put junior men into
good appointments over my head. The pay of the appointment of
Commissioner and Judge of Chittagong was less by some Pounds 350 a
year than that of other Commissionerships, though, as everyone said,
a man ought to have been paid higher, and not lower, for having to
live in such a place. And it was a terrible burden to have the work
of Judge, work of which I had no previous experience, added to the
already very heavy work of Commissioner. The two posts were, in fact,
incompatible. The work of one interfered with that of the other. If I
devoted time to the administrative work of Commissioner, I got into
trouble with the High Court for neglecting my judicial work as Judge,
and vice versa. The arrangement was an unworkable one. Fortunately
circumstances arose (though after my time) which compelled the
Government to sever the two posts and appoint a separate officer as
Judge.’
`…We were engaged on a very difficult, in fact an almost impossible,
task with these Mughs. The tangled maze of hills in which they live
is densely wooded and contains a great deal of valuable timber. It
had been placed under the charge of the Forest Department. A
department of any kind in India always assumes that the world exists
solely for the use of itself. And considers that anything that
interferes with the working of the department ought to be
removed…Finally some wise man observed that it was not so much the
Mughs themselves as their practice of ‘jhuming’ that did harm, and he
suggested that they should be taught to till the soil by ploughing
like the Bengalis…Every year the steamers of the British India
Company carry from Bengal to Chittagong, Akyab and Rangoon thousands
of Bengali labourers, who go to earn good wages for two or three
months by cutting and garnering the crops, while the lazy Mugh
proprietors sit in their verandas smoking their long, rank cheroots
and cutting jokes at the hard-working Bengalis…’
‘The Hand-Book to India: A Guide to the Stranger and the Traveller
and a Companion to the Resident’ by Joachim-Hayward Stocqueler
Published by W.H. Allen & Company, London, 1845.
Extract:
`Calcutta to Dacca (186 miles)
…The trip from Calcutta is effected by means of boats of large
barthen at all period of the year. Dacca is both a civil and a
military station, and many indigo-planters likewise reside there, or
in the neighbourhood. The following is the best description of the
place that we have fallen in with:
`The city of Dacca, with its minarets and spacious buildings,
appears, during the season of inundation, like that of Venice in the
West, to rise from the surface of the water, and, like the generality
of native towns presents an irregular appearance…There is an Armenian
church at Dacca. The floor of the interior of the building is divided
into three parts: one enclosed by a railing, for the altar; a central
portion, into which two folding-doors open; and another railed off,
which is exclusively occupied by the women and children, has a
gallery over it…The floor of the verandah contains many tomb-stones,
in memory of departed Armenian Christians, who formerly abounded in
the city of Dacca, where there are still an influential and wealthy
body.’
(RH Note): there is no mention of the source of the above account of
Dacca.
`…But the chief cause of the destruction of the city of Dacca is to
be traced to the loss of the muslin trade, which has almost entirely
disappeared. It is true that, by giving a commission, an extremely
delicate article may be still procured, at the rate of 150 rupees, or
Pounds 15 for ten yards; but at that rate, as may be readily
imagined, little can be sold, as the demand must be necessarily very
small. The working of shawl-scarfs with flossed silk is carried to
great perfection, and many are despatched by banghy to Calcutta.
Beautiful ear-rings and other ornaments, made of the purest silver,
and of an infinite variety of patterns, can be supplied at a very
short notice, and at reasonable prices. The suburbs of Dacca were
formerly inhabited by thousands of families of muslin-weavers, who
from the extreme delicacy of their manufacture, were obliged to work
in pits, sheltered from the heat of the sun and changes of the
weather; and even after that precaution, only while the dew lay on
the ground, as the increasing heat destroyed the extremely delicate
thread…’
‘Mercantalism and the East India Trade’ by P.J. Thomas
Published by Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., London, 1926. New impression,
1963.
Extract:
`…A Persian ambassador, returning from India in the seventeenth
century, presented his royal master with a cocoanut set with jewels,
containing within it a muslin turban thirty yards long. But such
excellence has long passed away, and is not even attempted at the
present time. (RH Note: In a footnote Thomas adds): `This industry is
now practically dead. The Exhibition at Wembley (1924) has only one
old specimen of the old Dacca work.’
`…Some of the poetic names of muslin tell their own tale. `Subnam’
(or evening dew) is the name for a thin pellucid variety, because it
is scarcely distinguishable from the dew or sand. Another of the
chefs d’oeuvres of Dacca is called "Abravan" (running water) because
it is supposed to be invisible in water. `Alabalee’ (very fine),
`Tanjeb’ (ornament of the Body), `Kasa’ (elegant) are also
interesting examples of poetic nomenclature. These goods were called
by similar fanciful names in other countries also. It has been called
in Europe ventus textiles (textile breeze) ‘web of woven air’,
‘cobweb’, and so forth. The woollen manufacturers of England said
that muslin was the shadow of a commodity rather than a commodity by
itself. This was indeed great praise.’
`Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India from
Calcutta to Bombay 1824-1825 by the Reverend Reginald Heber D.D. Vol.
1. (3 Vols. Third Edition).
Published by John Murray, London, 1828.
Reverend Reginald Heber was the Lord Bishop of Calcutta.
Extract:
`To the Right Honourable Charles W. Williams Wynn,
Dacca, July 13, 1824.
My Dear Wynn,
…Two thirds of the vast area of Dacca are filled with ruins, some
quite desolate and overgrown with jungle, others yet occupied by
Mussulman chieftains the descendants of the followers of Shah
Jehanguire, and all of the `Lions of war,’ `Prudent and valiant
Lords,’ `Pillars of the Council,’ `Swords of Battle,’ and whatever
other names of Cawn, Emir, or Omrah, the court of Delhi dispensed in
the time of its greatness. These are to me a new study. I had seen
abundance of Hindoo Baboos and some few Rajahs in Calcutta. But of
the 300,000 inhabitants who yet roost like bats in these old
buildings, or rear their huts amid their desolate gardens,
three-fourths are still Mussulmans, and the few English, and
Armenian, and Greek Christians who are found here, are not altogether
more than sixty or eighty persons, who live more with the natives,
and form less of an exclusive society than is the case in most parts
of British India. All the Mussulmans of rank whom I have yet seen, in
their comparatively fair complexions, their graceful and dignified
demeanour, particularly on horseback, their shewy dresses, the
martial curl of their whiskers, and the crowd, bustle, and
ostentation of their followers, far outshine any Hindoos; but the
Calcutta Baboos leave them behind toto coelo, in the elegance of
their carriages, the beauty of their diamond rings, their Corinthian
verandahs, and the other outward signs of thriving and luxury. Yet
even among these Mahommedans, who have, of course, less reason to
like us than any other inhabitants of India, there is a strong and
growing disposition to learn the English language, and to adopt, by
degrees, very many of the English customs and fashions.’
`…The most whimsical instance of imitation, is perhaps that of Mirza
Ishraf Ali, a Zemindar of 100,000 acres, and with a house like a
ruinous convent, who in his English notes, signs here hereditary
title of `Kureem Cawn Bahadur’ in its initials, K.C.B.’
`…a desire of learning our language is almost universal even here,
and in these waste bazaars and sheds, where I should never have
expected any thing of the kind, the dressing-boxes, writing-cases,
cutlery, chintzes, pistols, and fowling-pieces engravings, and other
English goods, or imitations of English, which are seen, evince how
fond of them the middling and humbler classes are become…’
‘British India: Its History, Topography, Government, Military
Defence, Finance, Commerce and Staple Products with an Explanation of
the Social and Religious State of One Hundred Million Subjects of the
Crown of England’ by Robert Montgomery Martin, Esq.
Published in London, 1855. Reprint1983.
(RH Note): Robert Montgomery Martin was Treasurer to Queen Victoria
in Hong Kong and Member of Her Majesty’s Legislative Council in
China.
Extract :
`Dacca, – on the Burha Gunga, an offset of the Koniae or Jabuna; 4 m.
long, and 1 and ¼ m. broad. It is at present a wide expanse of ruins.
The castle of its founder, Shah Jehangir, the noble mosque he built,
the palaces of the ancient newaubs, the factories and churches of the
Dutch, French and the Portuguese, are all sunk into ruin, and
overgrown with jungle. The city and suburbs are stated to possess ten
bridges, thirteen ghauts, seven ferry-stations, twelve bazaars, three
public wells, a variety of buildings for fiscal and judicial
purposes, a gaol and gaol-hospital, a lunatic asylum, and a native
hospital. Population, 200,000.
Raana Haider is a writer and researcher on global cultural heritage.
Her book India: Beyond the Taj and the Raj, India Research Press, New
Delhi will be out soon.