Cricket Country by Prashant Kidambi

 Cricket Country by Prashant Kidambi

This is a deserving companion volume to Guha’s book (A Corner of a Foreign Field). These two books supposedly on Cricket, are much more than that. They recount the interesting History and Sociology of the period they cover. Guha’s book has a wider sweep, in that it covers the entire period of India’s freedom struggle. The reader gets the impression that but for Cricket, India would not have gained independence. There is no trickery in engendering this impression. It is the power of narration, finding those intimate connections between the defining events of the freedom struggle, and the development of the game in India. Kidambi’s focus is at once narrower, and also wider. It is narrow, as it concerns the first ‘official’ tour of an all-India team to Britain and ends about the year 1912. It is wider as this tour is brilliantly described in the context of the socio-political developments in the Britain of that period. The year of the tour, 1911 was a landmark by many standards. It is the sixtieth anniversary of ‘The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations’ (Kohinoor, Dalrymple and Anand), the first of a series of similar exhibitions of the Victorian age. 1911 was host to another such exhibition. It was also the year of the massive general strike. A team of wrestlers (the pioneers of freestyle wrestling) from India was also visiting. Forces that precipitated the Great War were in full flow, and in hindsight, it is incredible that a cricket team from India should play a series of matches in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland- and this in the midst of the agitation for the Irish home rule, the birth of the Labour Party, the showdown with the House of Lords and so on. The extensive Notes and Citations provided are a delight in themselves.

The nineties saw the first public emergence of the match fixing scandal that rocked the India-Pakistan matches held in Sharjah. With this, the game lost millions of once devoted fans, this Reviewer, being one among them. This book, along with that by Guha, has the potential to bring these fans back to Cricket.

The Proud Tower by Barbara W. Tuchman

 The Proud Tower by Barbara W. Tuchman

Not just History, but Literature at its Best

Popular narrations of History invariably tend to simplify the causes of cataclysmic events. We are often told that the Great War was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. What was the powder keg underlying the trigger? Martin Gilbert (First World War) cites Serbian nationalism, as the root cause. Serbians scattered in different places of the vast and unwieldy Austro-Hungarian Empire desirous of uniting with Serbia were stirring the violent broth that led to the assassination- the proverbial final straw that broke the back of the Empire’s tolerance. Serbia was attacked, and the German Kaiser, always fishing for trouble, joined in, to spread the repercussions further than imagined.

Tuchman spreads the canvas wider still to examine the growing rumblings of social change that engulfed Europe in the years 1890-1914. Here is narration of History as Biography: Salisbury in Britain, Reed in the United States, Alfred Dreyfus in France, the dubious peace dove Tsar Nicholas II in Russia, and Richard Strauss in Germany were pivotal individuals whose careers as either flagbearers or victims of status quo prepared the ground for the greatest conflagration that History was to witness. The ‘liberation philosophies’ that catalyzed social change were Anarchism, Socialism and Syndicalism (See Roads to Freedom, by Bertrand Russell), the latter as upheld by that idealist Joures. The book and its wide sweep ends with the assassination of Joures. This last event reflects the triumph of Nationalism over Socialist Internationalism, as the workers- all members of the Socialist Parties in their respective countries, march off to wage war in the defense of their respective national borders.  

Today as countries in Western Europe fight a proxy war with Russia, using Ukraine as the fall guy, it is time to examine, Tuchman-style, the roots of Russophobia, which in the first place led an expanded NATO to search for a new adversary, in the face of the collapse of Warsaw Pact.

Tuchman’s book is not just History, but Literature at its best.

Aurel Stein- The Pioneer of the Silk Road by Annabel Walker

 Aurel Stein- The Pioneer of the Silk Road by Annabel Walker

Scholar-Explorer

Unable to find an academic position, and alarmed by the growing antisemitism in his native Hungary, Aurel Stein migrated to England, and from thereon came to India, as a minor functionary of the crown administration. Like any contemporary Indian, his major preoccupation was to keep his Government job and the pension that came with it, while working on his passion- Archeology. These were times when the Archeological Survey of India was not yet born, and he could not get any formal role in this, his chosen area. However as a master manipulator, he was able to convince the Viceroy of his time, Lord Curzon- a part time traveler and explorer himself, to give him paid leave for his exploration of Chinese Turkistan (the current day Sinkiang), and the Silk Route which coursed through the northern and southern borders of the Taklamakan desert. But by the time he could manage all this bureaucratic jugglery, it was 1900, and he was already 38 years old- for the life expectancy of his period, already well into his middle age. So what did he do until then? Peter Hopkirk (The Great Game) is silent on this issue. However we learn from Annabel Walker, that Aurel Stein, in this period mastered Sanskrit, discovered the one authentic version of Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, which was in the possession of a prominent Brahmin Kashmiri family, and translated it. The length of this translation went to into at least four volumes. Even today, this stands as one of the most authentic versions of Kalhana’s great classic and is widely cited (Sampath, Bravehearts of Bharat- Vignettes from Indian History).

Starting from 1900, Aurel Stein turns his attention to the exploration of the Taklamakan for the next forty years, almost up to the moment of his demise in 1940. The decade from 1900-1910 (loosely known as the Edwardian age) was a period of change. I quote from    “Unsinkable” The Full Story of RMS Titanic, by Daniel Allen Butler, (Stackpole Books, 1998, pp25-26):

“The accelerating rate of change was most marked in the last decade. In 1900 there had been fewer than 8000 automobiles in the entire United States, but by 1910 there were close to a half-million. In 1903 the first flight of a heavier-than-air craft lasted twelve seconds and covered 852 feet; in 1909 Louis Bleriot had flown across the English Channel, a distance of twenty-six miles. The years between 1900 and 1910 had seen the introduction of the phonograph, wireless telegraphy, turbine-powered steamships, the electric light, the original Kodak “brownie” camera, heavier-than-air flying machines, motion pictures- all of them as reliable apparatus rather than mere technical novelties.

The Edwardian world would witness revelations in the physics of Roentgen’s X-rays, Marie Curie’s radium, and Einstein’s E = mc2; in the psychology of Jung, Freud, Pavlov, and Adler; and in medicine, where the secrets of vitamins, genes, and hormones would be unlocked. Science had been transformed from a dalliance for eccentrics into a systematic discipline, becoming the foundation of industry.”

Aurel Stein benefitted from the incredible changes of this decade. While he started his career in the Taklamakan trundling through the giddy heights of the surrounding mountain ranges into the desert- bitterly cold and intolerably hot in turns, but always without water, his baggage carried by camels, mules and donkeys, he ended his career exploring the Persian desert using high speed cameras mounted on the underside of an aero plane.

Together with other explorers, Stein unearthed the rich Buddhist architecture, frescos and ancient Buddhist manuscripts in the oases towns along the Silk Route, mapping the incredible inroads made by the Indian influence on these remote regions. There can be no doubt that Stein’s motivations came from Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, which documents the conquest of the Tarim basin (in modern day Sinkiang) up to the towns of Kuchha and Turfan, by the Kashmiri King Lalitaditya (Sampath, Bravehearts) around 755-56 CE. As a matter of fact, Lalitaditya becomes an early victim of the waterless desert, and fails to return to Kashmir, meeting his end in the desert, but not before carrying the message of Buddhist and Hindu cultures to these far outposts. Both Kuchha and Turfan yield to Stein, an unprecedented volume of archeological finds.

Since then, the sword of iconoclastic Islam had overtaken the oases towns of the Silk Route and much of the paintings and frescos not buried in the sand had been destroyed by religious vandals. But what remained hidden was in a spectacular state of preservation given the low humidity of the desert climate. These, Stein dug out, and took away, in camel loads, in the course of three long forays into the desert. These invaluable objects can today be seen in different museums in various parts of the world, including the museums in Delhi.

With technological advancement also comes a generational change in the social psyche. The Chinese Central Government became suddenly conscious of its cultural legacy and began to control the foray of foreign freebooters into their country. Back in India, which was Stein’s launch pad, the people had begun to agitate for their independence. Stein remained a kind of Rip Van Winkle, believing that he was rendering a service to conserve human heritage while carting off the Taklamakan plunder to European museums, and that India’s future lay within the British Raj. Death came in 1940 relieving him of the trauma of upcoming upheavals of the forties decade.

Walker traces the life of Stein, in great detail, but with compassion and without passing a judgment.

The Blue Mutiny- The Indigo Disturbances in Bengal 1859-62 by Blair B Kling

 

The Blue Mutiny- The Indigo Disturbances in Bengal 1859-62 by Blair B Kling

Flotsam & Jetsam

Speak of colonial India history- the images that spring to our minds are those of magnificent buildings, regal Viceroys, grand Durbars where native princes reiterate their allegiance to the Crown and so on. Dig a little deeper, and we come across intrepid officials- Collectors in the districts, Surveyors who mapped the forests, geography and geology of the country, Residents in the courts of princely states, not to speak of numerous army officers (and mercenaries in the service of native states), who have left behind their memoirs. Of these, several adopted the policy of paternal autocracy towards their subjects, while others turned into unapologetic Indophiles. But most remained professional outsiders, who did their jobs efficiently, amassed wealth unashamedly, and returned to their native country- England or Scotland, to live out their lives in undreamt of luxury.

The seamy side of colonialism is less well known. Together with the worthies cited above, there were numerous other individuals- thugs, deserters, drunks, free-booters, merchants, buccaneers, not to speak of others described in gentle Victorian terms as ‘women of easy virtue’ . Most of these came to India like their more respectable compatriots in search of a fortune (or a spouse), and having failed to realize their ambitions, lapsed into poverty (or ennui)- too poor (or too lazy) to book a passage home.

Falling between these two extremities are the missionaries, and the planters among others. The former came to harvest souls, the latter to harvest indigo. Given the wide difference in the nature of the commodities that they dealt with, they ought to have dwelt in parallel Universes, and their paths ought never to have crossed. But given the complexity of the human condition, these two sets of non-state actors were often at loggerheads with one another. At the heart of the dispute was the manner in which the planters, some of them White Zamindars, dealt with the native peasantry. Enabled by soft racist laws of the colonial set up, the planters behaved like petty tyrants in the rural hinterland far from the seat of governance in Calcutta. The missionaries piqued by the unchristian ways of their countrymen protested. How John Peter Grant, the first Deputy Governor of Bengal (under Canning) and a handful of dedicated officials subdued the planters by first bringing them under the jurisdiction of the native civil courts, and then by conscientizing the peasantry about their civil rights makes an interesting story. Most entertaining is the way a Bengali play titled Nil Darpan (The Blue Mirror), translated by Michael Madhusadan Dutt, under commission of the missionary James Long, came to be inadvertently printed and distributed by the colonial Government at its own expense. This must rank as the most original ‘own goal’ in history. 

Balochistan, the British and the Great Game by T.A. Heathcote

 

Balochistan, the British and the Great Game by T.A. Heathcote

Divide by Rule

What does one do when confronted by a country whose population is fractured by warring tribes, whose chief occupation is plunder, whose chief source of revenue is collection of protection money, and the foundation of criminal justice system is payment of blood money? What does one do, when the sovereign has no means of tax collection (primarily because there is no productive activity) but is nevertheless obliged to pay the tribal chiefs money to save his throne, and raise an army to put down periodic rebellion?

A civilized approach would be disarm the roving gangs, and nudge their members towards productive work on their lands, strengthen the central authority, provide loans for infrastructure, construct self-sustaining permanent assets, and help in establishing a credible criminal justice system aimed at reform rather than retribution. Tough? But doable as shown by the incomparable John Jacob, the Political Superintendent in Sind, in his dealings with the adjacent Khanate of Kalat. In recognition of his services, Khangarh was renamed as Jacobabad.

The officials of Punjab, the other state bordering Kalat, resorted to an alternative approach diametrically opposed to that of Jacob by encouraging the tribal chiefs in their internecine conflicts, by weakening the Khan and supporting the non-existent ‘confederacy of Chiefs’. Annual bribes were paid to a multiplicity of Chiefs, supposedly to secure protection for the trade caravans up the Bolan Pass, but actually to demonstrate that such protection was impossible to secure without stationing British (-Indian) troops on a permanent basis at Quetta. The policy of Punjab frequently frustrated that of Sind, but following Jacob’s death, Punjab’s handling of the frontier districts gained upper hand supported by a series of increasingly cynical Viceroys. That such an approach had led to the decimation of the Army of Indus in the first Afghan War (1839-42) was quite forgotten. History as they repeats, but in this instance, not as a farce, but as yet another tragedy causing the death of the British Political Agent (as ambassadors were then called) in Kabul and the destruction of an entire British regiment in Maiwand in the second Afghan War (1878-80). The garrison at Quetta could neither prevent this tragedy nor for that matter protect the supply lines during this crucial period as the British losses in the war, encouraged the plundering gangs to ever more adventure. In the final denouement, though only in 1893, after a further decade of intrigues, the Khan was replaced by his son.

In the backdrop of the more gory history of Afghanistan, Balochistan (and Sind) does not attract much attention in narrations of popular history. Heathcote has filled in the details of this great gap and deserves our gratitude. The text could have been made reader friendly, if it had been supplied with detailed maps. In the present edition, there are only two, wholly inadequate to provide the backdrop of the momentous movements of men, animals and armies which crisscross this wide area.

What do we learn from the History of this area? How shall we map our future? To answer these questions let us recap the events of over two hundred years of foreign intervention in Afghanistan. The first Afghan war saw the replacement of (old) Dost Muhammad with (the new?) Dost Muhammad. The second Afghan war saw the replacement of Sher Ali by his son. The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, a century later saw the newly implanted ruler Najibullah share the fate of Shah Shuja more than a hundred years ago. More recently American intervention saw the (old) Taliban replaced by the (new?) Taliban. Did any of these later day interventionists read their History lessons?

Given the current state of Afghanistan where even in the best of times tribal Jirgas trump the elected Parliament, and the range of tribal gangs recognize no international boundaries, it is best for the world to (i) realize that not only Afghanistan but Pakistan also, as a political entity is unsustainable, and (ii) await the birth of a visionary like John Jacob to bring peace to the area.

The Raja of Hirsil- The legend of Frederick ‘Pahari’ Wilson by Robert Hutchison

 

The Raja of Hirsil- The legend of Frederick ‘Pahari’ Wilson by Robert Hutchison

Frederick Wilson, the last of the White Moghuls (actually a White Raja, as he lived and thrived in the midst of an almost exclusively Hindu society) is an interesting character- a rebel against the White mainstream, and yet, a player in the Great Game into which he was pitched by forces beyond his control. The book however loses much of its value as the author presents a ‘romanticized account of Wilson’s life’ (author’s words). The reader is left to wonder how much of this account is fiction, and how much History? As a work of fiction, it falls far short of standards set by the masters of fiction. As popular History, it falls short of standards set by contemporaries such as Dalrymple, Hopkirk and others. There are no citations or even a bibliography of the primary sources of information included in the narration. This creates serious doubts in the minds of the readers as to the veracity of its contents. I cite one instance as an illustration.

The book brings Pahari Wilson together with the other tragic player of the great game- George Hayward. Their meeting takes place at Harsil sometime in late 1866 or 1867. Wilson puts the young Hayward through his paces in the exploration of the Himalayas. They trundle through many of the high passes leading from Tehri Garhwal to Tibet over a period of six months. If this narration is true, then it would form the most important phase of Hayward’s career which led him from 1868 onwards to his seminal contributions in mapping the higher regions of the Himalayas, and the sources of Karakash, and Yarkand rivers, not to speak of the Gilgit-Baltistan region, and the Yasin valley where he met his tragic end. However the most authoritative biography of Hayward (Tim Hannigan, Murder in the Hindu Kush) makes no mention whatsoever of Wilson. Indeed, according to Hannigan, the period (1865-67) intervening his resignation from the British Indian Army and his arrival back in India with an assignment of the Royal Geographical Society, is a blank. Hannigan makes a cursory mention of Hayward’s exploration of the ‘Western Himalayas’ in this period. If only the Raja of Hirsil was a book of History, this blank in the biography of Hayward could have been filled with satisfaction. But the reader has no confidence to do so.

This brings us to many more troubling questions: Did Baron Orenberg actually travel to Tibet? Did Rani Jindan really meet him and secure Russian support for the Sikh Kingdom against the machinations of the East India Company? Was Wilson actually the agent who corrupted the Sikh General who threw the battle against Hardinge’s forces? If what the author asserts are facts, then undoubtedly Wilson has played an overwhelmingly important role in furthering the British Empire in India. If much of this is fiction, not only the book, but the life of Wilson is a waste. Wilson’s only claim to fame then, is the largescale denudation of the forests of Tehri Garhwal, fraudulent accounting, illegal transfer of profits from his business activities in India to shell companies registered in Gibraltar, and partnership in questionable banks etc. He can legitimately claim to be the father of corporate mis-governance seen in contemporary India.

The World by Simon Seabag Montefiore

 

The World by Simon Seabag Montefiore

This is not so much a Review, as it is a preview, written in response to the Author’s introductory comments about his book, made at an author book signing event (7 PM, 24 January 2023, Bookworm, Church Street, Bangalore, India).

Biography is intensely personal, while history writing is largely impersonal. The author in this, his latest work, takes a sort of middle ground, by narrating history through the biographies of families.

As an illustration, the author sees the recent history of India through the biography of the Nehru (later the Nehru-Gandhi) family. Self-consciously, in the manner of an apologia, he spoke of Prime Minister Modi as a ‘self-made man’ (his words)- clearly an anomaly. This betrays his own preference- he would rather India be ruled by the current scion of the Nehru family, even if it means to dump the democratic will of the people of India. Unfortunately for him, and his theory of world History as history of families, the current scion of the Nehru family is trundling along the length of the country in Forrest Gump style complete with a beard and is showing no interest in the country’s power play. Horror of horrors, in a much forgotten press interview given years ago, he vowed like Bhishma, that he would not marry, and would not be Prime Minister. In the author’s newest paradigm, this is the end of History for India!

But if this was not enough, the Author went into the Moghul family and validated the fratricidal blood-letting that attended each succession as a mechanism of choosing the most competent individual to rise to Kingship! This took my breath away. Then why crown the untested Charles King? He should prove his competence by slugging it out with his brothers on the grounds around the Tower of London. The victor can seize the treasures within and dump the vanquished in the dungeon beneath. We might move a whole generation forward by asking Harry to join the slugfest, by inciting a sufficient number of Lords to support him. Would the author prefer this? Or should the cultured, anglo-saxon, christian white World be governed by one set of rules, and the brown washed, heathen, by another?  Is it that the latter, can only be tamed/controlled by a bit of oriental despotism?

It is time Historians called out oppression, and despotism wherever they see it, and desist from the dangerous game of validation/negation. Islam does not recognize the right of primogeniture (Gribble, The Deccan Sultanate), and at the same time does not lay out any rules of succession. Islamic rulers uniformly ran an extractive state, and the hapless ruled did not really care who taxed them- the Nawab or the East India Company (EIC), both foreign to them. This made the Company’s takeover of the country that much more easy. And what of the families of these despots? Tippu Sultan- a minor footnote in the history of Islamic despotism, had a harem 3000 strong (Hoover, Men Without Hats). After the fall of Seringapatam (Srirangapatna), the EIC had a difficult time moving this humongous “family” first to the Vellore Fort, and subsequently to Calcutta. Would the members of this harem have even known one another? Even seen themselves as belonging to a family?

I will go no further lest this Preview become as long as the book. However I cannot desist from narrating the one inevitable question that every Briton in India faces today. The author was asked if the Narayana Murthy (the billionaire founder of Infosys) family gets a mention in the book. Initially the author was lost, unsure of the name. On being reminded of the Sunak connection, he somewhat blandly replied that World covered events only till February. The implication is obvious. Murthy’s contribution to history begins only when he becomes the Father (in Law) of Britain, however transitory the connection could eventually prove to be. As the parent of a very sullen, determined, and fiercely independent, foster daughter myself, getting her to marry a chappie who would in the distant future worm his way into the Prime Ministership of a country- whether Britain or the DPR Congo, would require superhuman astrological skills. In this sense, Murthy’s achievement on this score is truly peerless and he deserves a few paras in the World.

Surat by Moin Mir

 

Surat by Moin Mir

This book by Moin Mir describes an event which falls in the period intervening the fall of Tippu Sultan (1799) and the Second Anglo Maratha War (1803). The fall of Surat through the machinations of the East India Company in 1800, is an event critical in the rise of Bombay as the principal port on the west of India, a position held by Surat until then. That this took place without a grand war, is probably why it is ignored in History despite the momentous reset in trade from the Moghul controlled Indian coast to the British owned island of Bombay, that it heralded. Mir deserves praise for highlighting this event, and the subsequent fight that the Nawab carried out successfully within the precincts of the British Parliament rather than violently in the battlefields of India. As the very first prince from India to directly take up this fight in Britain, he carved out a new paradigm in forging a relationship between the ruling and the ruled.

Mir’s narration however has two major shortcomings. His attempts to fit the Nawab’s personality in the mold of the ideal Moghul ruler fails entirely. Strange as it may seem today, the ideal Moghul ruler was expected to combine within himself the qualities of a warrior and of a poet. Somewhat like expecting Shakespeare to lead the English army to a war with Scotland or expecting General Manoj Pandey (the current Chief of Staff) to compose poems of devotion, romance, or of unrequited love. However, the Hero of Surat, Mir Jaffar Ali, never fought a war. Moin Mir tries to make up for this failing by repeatedly reminding us of his Hero’s marksmanship as a sixteen year old when he helped his father in fighting off a local rebellion, and of his love for Sufi poetry. A prince who takes up his pen in his fight for justice, is a hero in his own right. He need not necessarily also wield the sword. He could be a good swordsman, but this is irrelevant to the path he has chosen. The narrative loses its tightness by this needless diversion. A Moghul ruler is also expected to be a great lover. In the present case, the Hero of Surat, while in London fighting his case in the British Parliament makes a conquest- a white woman. But this like in the case of so many Indian princes, is an affair not with a princess or even a minor member of the royalty, but a woman from the stage- a relationship far below the social status of a prince. It is a conquest not of manliness but of the purse! Pages devoted to the Nawab’s pursuit of love in London makes for tiresome reading.

Another major historical slip- the author Moin Mir is confused about the identity of the Earl of Mornington and calls him Arthur Wellesley. The Earl of Mornington, is Richard Wellesley, the Governor General. His brother Arthur (an early instance of nepotism) led the East India Company forces against Tippu Sultan and the Marathas. He was promoted to Major General after the latter campaign and later became the Duke of Wellington. As such the man who annexed the Kingdoms of Hindustan and is Richard and not Arthur. A serious error that seems to have even missed the Editors in Britain!

Mir mentions in passing that the Nawab established the first modern textile mill in Surat. If true, that would be most important achievement of the Nawab, which would set him apart from his dissolute contemporaries, and would put him in the same class of entrepreneurs as the incomparable J. N. Tata. It is sad that the author glosses over this most important achievement.

 Tales of Crimes Past: A casebook of crime in colonial India by Sunil Nair

To generalize an observation made by the eminent social psychologist Ashis Nandy, a crime is actually the outcome of a compact between the perpetrator and the victim. The incidents narrated by Nair in this, his debut book, drawn as much from his encyclopedic knowledge of colonial history as from his meticulous research, provide evidence, if such was necessary, for Nandy’s assertion. A victim patiently waiting to be poisoned, in full knowledge of the perpetrator’s intent is a case in point. Delivery of justice on the other hand needs the collaboration of numerous players- the complainant, the investigating officer, witnesses, approver if any, and the judiciary. Even in the best of times, perjury, withdrawn confessions, partisan investigators, combine with plain and simple incompetence, and bureaucratic delays, to impede the delivery of justice. Add to this the element of racism, uneven application of laws, or the need to whittle down an investigation to protect the reputation of a bit player, when the latter is white, or is a crucial prop to the larger politics of the colonial empire- the delivery of justice can become incredibly complex. The incidents narrated in this book cover the entire gamut of this complexity, and make for interesting reading. We hope that the author follows up on this effort.