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[From
Colonial Administration and Social Developments in Middle India: The Central Provinces, 1986-1921. Ph. D. 1980 dissertation by Philip McEldowney]
Part I. The Indian and British Settings The British Community and Its Interaction with Indians [Table 6. English Population in the Central Provinces]
In my study of colonial rule it is useful to examine the character of the rulers themselves. This chapter examines the character of the British colonial community and their relationship with Indians in a province in central India in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It indicates first who the Englishmen were, then the character of the social environment in which they lived, and finally how they related to Indian society around them. The entho-centric British colonial society which developed along with the creation of a
provincial administration in the Central Province after 1861 differed mom in degree then in kind
from British colonial societies at Benares and Guntur five
decades earlier.(60.1)
++Page 61 furloughs for the English were more frequent. By the late 1860s the Suez canal had opened; in India, at the same time, railways linked northern Central Provinces with Bombay and Calcutta and a terminal line penetrated from Bombay into southern Central Provinces as far as the capital at Nagpur. Since the days of the hybridized English-Indian Nabobs of the late eighteenth century, fewer and fewer Englishmen showed their admiration for Indian customs and practices by imitating and adapting their life style to that of a maharaja. In addition to greater contact and communication with England and between English social centers in India, other changes were taking place. British administrators worked under stricter regulations; they received a more thorough professional training, and they had higher salaries. All these changes worked to end the relative isolation of Englishmen from Englishmen in India while the same had extricated most Englishmen from close, personal involvement in Indian life. Within the province, small groups of Englishmen were still often isolated from one mother in district outposts, but the opportunities and occasions for social contact and intercourse had so increased that their physical and cultural isolation seemed less severe. Compared to British communities in other provinces, British society in the Central Provinces was never large. Like other British communities, most of the members concentrated in one or two provincial towns and a station at a higher elevation in the hot season, while the rest were dispersed to many district outposts. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the four to five thousand British residents of the province constituted less than four percent of the entire British population in India. (See table.) Of the major provinces only Assam had a ++Page 62
 ++Page 63 smaller number of British residents. More than two-thirds of these British residents were
stationed at the two largest towns: Nagpur, the capital, and Jabalpur, the northern trading and
administrative center. Almost half (40 percent) of all British residents in the province were British
soldiers, living in separate military cantonments, mainly at or near these two towns. Excluding
these troops in the large towns, the British population was dispersed to sixteen other district
headquarters and small out-posts, such as Balaghat. By 1911, out of 6,808 British subjects in the
province, 1,463 or twenty-one-and-a-half percent lived in Nagpur, 3,822 or fifty-six percent in
Jabalpur, while, in comparison, there were only 61 or nine-tenths of one percent in the hill district
of Balaghat.(63.1)
Excluding the British troops, most of the English community were directly involved in the provincial administration. They consisted of administrators in various departments along with their wives and children. Unlike some other parts of India, the Central Provinces never included a substantial number of non-official Englishmen. There were no indigo or tea planters and only a few commercial agents and missionaries. Though the first Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces had proposed a scheme for European colonization on the sparsely populated highlands, it never attracted my English colonizers. A few foreign exporters stationed their agents in the province. In the early twentieth century, these traders were supplemented by a few engineers, managers, and agents when manganese mining began in the Satpura plateau. At about that time missionary effort increased. Before the famines of the late nineteenth century, the few ++Page 64 missionaries had lived in the large towns managing the activities of their educational and
charitable institutions, such as Hislop College, Nagpur. There had been three exceptions: Stephen
Hislop, O. J. Lohr, and J. Lampard. Stephen Hislop of the Scottish Free Church had worked with
Goad tribals in the Nagpur area in the 1840s and 1850s. O. J. Lohr founded a mission in a Raipur
village to work with the Chamars in the 1860s. In Balaghat district, J. Lampard began work with
Baihar Gonds and Baigas in the early 1890s. It was the famines, however, which stimulated
missionary efforts in the province. Within one decade (1891-1901) the number of Indian
Christians almost tripled, mostly because of
the "conversion" of famine orphans.(64.1)
rather unique; other big Indian stations had a healthy mixture of civil, military, and commercial folk, but in Nagpur it was all civil. Even the parson was an official. (64.2) The status of British administrators in the province remained low as compared to other provinces. Living conditions were more difficult and primitive, especially in the first decades-of British provincial rule, The pay and prospects for promotion were almost the worst in India. in the mid-1860s while Alfred Lyall was traveling -from Agra to his new appointment as District Commissioner in Hoshangabad, he reflected, "All civili- ++Page 65 zation ceases abruptly as soon as you leave the Ganges valley." After his first Christmas at
Hoshangabad he remarked on how very dreary and stiff the celebrations were compared to the
cheerful society of Agra. (065.1)
Three decades later (in the 1890s) Henry Sharp expressed a different reaction to conditions in the province. By then government buildings, officials' houses, and a network of railways had been constructed, end this improved living conditions in most of the headquarter towns. But Sharp was stationed to one of the up-country towns, and he accepted things as they were, adjusting to the simple life. He expressed his enjoyment of the pleasant simplicity and unconventionality of life . . . . Nobody minded if your dwelling was of sun-dried bricks covered over with a roof of untidy thatch, your ceiling-cloth scampered across by rats and other beasts, and your furniture of the shabbiest wicker- work . . . . Things were used and enjoyed in common. The custom had. only recently ceased of taking your own knives, forks and spoons when you went out to dinner. But you still took your own servant . . . . Your door was always open, literally and metaphorically, to all comers--including fowls of the air and beasts of the forest . . . . Not all the visitors were harmless . . . . I should be sorry to say, least I be thought to exaggerate, how many scorpions and black kraits I have killed in the house.(65.3) Not all British administrators acclimatized themselves so easily and appreciated the living conditions in the remote areas of the province as Sharp did. Only two years before (1889), the provincial administration ++Page 66 had requested the Government of India to improve the pay and position of its commissioned
officers. The Chief Commissioner informed the central government that Central Provinces officers
ere "at presently gravely dissatisfied with their position and prospects," though they did not allow
their personal grievances to interfere with their public duties. The Chief Commissioner realized
that the Central Provinces was not a popular place for service in comparison with other parts of
India. Most officers in the province had selected the North-West Provinces or the Punjab for
service after passing their examination in England, but they had been sent to the "jungle of the
Central Provinces" irrespective of their choice. The Central Provinces had a worse climate; and its
officers were never selected for prize appointments in the general service. Even though the
railways had made the province more accessible, the Chief Commissioner recognized that "the
Central Provinces will never hold a high place in
popular estimation as a desirable residence." (66.1)
There were two factors which helped to compensate the Central Provinces official community for its sense of isolation and inferiority. One was the ++Page 67 development and perpetuation of a close "family tradition" among them. The other was the re-creation and maintenance of British social and cultural custom wherever officials went in the province. The development of family tradition among the British community grew out of several circumstances. Officials were tied to each other by more than their common cultural and national background. Especially in the 1860s several administrators were related by marriage to others, and by common experiences of training and service with each other. During Richard Temple's appointment as Chief Commissioner, his cousin, Harry Rivett-Carnac, and his younger step-brother, John A. Temple, served under him. Several of Richard Temple's fellow officers from the Punjab also joined the Central Provinces administration. They included Henry Morris, W.S. Brooke, John S. Campbell, Robert Egerton, Hector Mackenzie, W. B. Jones, F. Venning, and Malcolm Low. Among some of these men there were additional ties. John Campbell's brother, George Campbell, became the second Chief Commissioner after Richard Temple. Malcolm Low's father, John Low, had commanded troops in the province during the Third Maratha War of 1818-1819. Besides these, Charles Bernard's uncle, John Lawrence, was Richard Temple's mentor in the Punjab. Charles Grant came from a family which had served in the East India Company. Although the decade of the 1860s was unusual for the high number of family and provincial ties, similar situations also existed in the following decades. Both brothers Charles H. T. Crosthwaite and Robert J. Crosthwaite became Chief Commissioners in the late 1880s. The son of Charles Crosthwaite, Henry Robert Crosthwaite, achieved prominence as a Central Provinces administrator in the first two decades of the twentieth century. The brothers Lindsey and John W. Neill filled secretarial posts and headed de- ++Page 68 partments during the last decades of the nineteenth century. Of nine Chief Commissioners after Temple and Morris, two more came from the Punjab (1). Fitzpatrick and B. Robertson) , four from the North-West Province (C. H. I. Crosthwaite, J. Woodburn, J. P. Hewett, and J. 0. Miller), two from Bengal (A. Mackenzie and A. MacDonnell), and one from Bombay (F. Lely). None came from Madras. Such a pedigree of family and provincial ties indicates me of the ways in which Englishmen in the province felt a strong sense of community. The policies
and ideas of Chief Commissioner Henry Morris gave further shape to
strengthen the family feeling among the official community after Temple's departure in the late
1860s. Morris not only used various in- formal procedures to bring administrators closer together,
but also insured that his methods would continue after his long tenure in office (thirteen years in
the 1870s and early 1880s) by personally training several young officers. Morris stressed the
importance of open and frank discussion, and of regular visits and communication between British
officers at all levels--between the heads of departments, between the separate department heads
and their subordinates, and between divisional commissioners and their district officers. In the
appointment and transfer of officers he tried to reduce the distinction between military and civilian
members of the administration by utilizing their knowledge of the local countryside and their
particular talents of supervision and bureaucratic
management.(68.1)
++Page 69 became civil servants under "staff" appointments in the early 1860s. By the mid-1870s less than half of the Central Provinces Commission were military officers. Their numbers steadily dwindled until only me or two remained in the commission by the turn of the century. Morris
equally stressed warm social relations between officers as much as cordial
administrative relations. When J. B. Fuller arrived at the summer capital of Pachmarhi for his new
appointment as head of the Agriculture Department, the first question which Morris put to him
was "Can you dance?"(69.1)
Morris left the Central Provinces in 1883 and until 1907 most of the Chief Commissioners were "outsiders" who had no previous experience in the province but had served in other parts of India. Nevertheless subordinate administrators effectively perpetuated and elaborated the "family tradition" during the two-and-one-half decades of rule by "outside One such administrator, Andrew Fraser was in a special position to feel the influence of Morris's policies. Arriving in 1871, Andrew Fraser rapidly advanced to different positions in the secretariate and was in charge of different departments by 1877. For the next six years he was directly under the supervision of Morris at Nagpur. Later, when he was appointed (in the late 1880s and early 1890s) Commissioner of the eastern division (Chhattisgarh), Fraser instituted a system of monthly conferences with district officers. Every last Saturday and Sunday of the month officers came to met with one another and Fraser. Those conferences produced ++Page 70 valuable discussions on administrative problems and also provided a "relief from the monotony
and loneliness of District work." They engendered "a sense of solidarity" toward government
activity in the Division.(70.1)
Fraser's career and his Promotion of close relations between officers provided a continuity of a particular style of provincial administration from Morris's time into the twentieth century. But Fraser was not alone: other officers reinforced the provincial tradition and carried it even further into the twentieth century. The careers of J. B. Fuller;, Reginald H. Craddock, Benjamin Robertson, and Frank Sly were interrelated with Fraser's and with each other's. Fuller first served in the Central Provinces under Morris as Director of Agriculture, at the time when Fraser was Morris's secretary. In the late 1880S Frank Sly began his civil ser- vice career in Sambalpur and Raipur under Fraser, who was Divisional Commissioner. During those years Fuller's assistant in the Settlement Department was Reginald H. Craddock. In the early 1890s Fuller, Craddock, and Benjamin Robertson were in Nagpur together: Fuller was Settlement Commissioner, Craddock continued as assistant to Fuller and later became Settlement Officer for Nagpur district, and Robertson joined the Central Provinces from Bombay to conduct the census operation of 1891. In the mid-1890s Craddock continued as Nagpur Settlement Officer and periodically relieved the Settlement Commissioner while Fraser was Commissioner of ++Page 71 Nagpur Division. Sly continued also as Settlement Officer in Hoshangabad while Robertson was District Commissioner in neighboring Nimar. Both were briefly under Fuller when he became Narbudda Divisional Commissioner during 1894. In the late 1890s Robertson again served under Fuller, this time as District Commissioner of Jabalpur when Fuller was the Divisional Commissioner. When Fuller left the province in the early twentieth century, Robertson succeeded to the Commissionership. Both of them, as well as Craddock as Settlement Commissioner and Sly as Raipur District Commissioner, came under Fraser's direction when he attained the Chief Commissionership from 1899 to 1901. Fuller and Fraser went on to head the two Bengals in the early twentieth century. The remaining three officers eventually advanced to the Chief Commissionership of the province and succeeded each other, Craddock in 1907-1912, Robertson in 1912-20, and Sly, 1920 onwards. The interrelated careers of these five officers and others provided both continuity and strength to the provincial tradition. The effects of a
strong provincial tradition among subordinate officers during the years of
the "outsiders" did not go unnoticed by either the officers or the Chief Commissioners. Fuller, for
instance, finding that Chief Commissioner Dennis Fitzpatrick did not support his policy of
government rent fixation, simply waited until the next Chief Commissioner, Alexander Mackenzie,
who approved his ideas, was appointed. In a similar vein, Fuller instructed Anthony MacDonnell
during his first months of Chief Commissioner in the details of land revenue policy. He pointed
out MacDonnell's mistakes and suggested ways in which MacDonnell's ideas could be revised to
conform to provincial policy.(71.1)
++Page 72 Mackenzie, had found that "his programs of reform were hampered by dis- agreement with
military members of the provincial commission." In the early twentieth century Chief
Commissioner John 0. Miller reported that his predecessor, Frederick Lely, had had to persist
against local officers, ideas to get his policies accepted. Miller himself felt "the Central Provinces
officers [formed] somewhat a family party and (discussed] matters among themselves to an extent
unknown elsewhere."(72.1)
Thus from almost the beginning and all during the six decades of British provincial rule in the Central Provinces, a strong tradition of close and personal relations between local British officials emerged,and endured. It was based on the common family, provincial, and military character of the first decade which Morris strengthened and promoted as a continuing pattern. Later, others ensured the family tradition persisted into the twentieth century. The development of a family tradition was only one way in which th British community succeeded in accommodating itself to isolation from British life in England and in other Indian provinces. In daily life t:ey discovered others ways to retain their British social customs and cultural heritage. The members of the British community lived in three different social contexts--one was in the large towns such as Nagpur, Jabalpur, and the summer capital of Pachmarhi; the second was as smaller groups in , district headquarters and outposts; the third, as officers periodically toured the Indian countryside by themselves. In each of these social ++Page 73 contexts British officers developed ways to retail, their English life styles in India. Nagpur, Jabalpur, and Pachmarhi were the centers of the largest British communities. The most important officers resided at the capital of Nagpur. They included the Chief Commissioner, his Secretarial staff, the heads of departments such as Land revenue, Education, Police, Public Works, Forest, the Divisional staff, and the district administrators. Almost all of these journeyed to the summer capital of Pachmarhi for three months each year. They were joined by other British administrators from other divisions and departments. A large number cam from Jabalpur, which was often considered the second capital of the province. The town plan of Jabalpur typically represents the way in which a physical and social English enclave was separated from Indians. The town consisted of four sections. The old and crowded Indian residential and business center was located north of the Umti strew. South of the strew and north of the railway tracks most of the government buildings and offices had been constructed. Beyond the tracks European officers lived in spacious houses separated from the cantonment of British troops by a parade maidan (field). A secondary market center, called the Sadr grew up in the area south of the tracks which served the needs of the European population. Similar types of segregation were found in Nagpur and other district headquarters. Pachmarhi, the summer capital, was almost entirely a European town. Originally only the site of a hunting lodge, the local administration selected it as their summer retreat. At 4,800 feet elevation it gave relief from the summer heat for the officials. By 1872 the main buildings and residences had been constructed. By the early twentieth century its population swelled to around six thousand during the summer months when British ++Page 74 officers arrived with their families and servants. The climate was not as cool as Simla or England, but it was the closest approximation in the province. Gradually social life
among the British community developed in the large towns and the
summer capital. There were teas, dinners, dances, and various ceremonies to attend, and Christian
and English festivals to celebrate. In addition there were English recreational activities. By the late
1860s Kamptee, a suburb of Nagpur, had a
race-course.(74.1)
++Page 75 officer could always get away from office."(75.1)
The social life of
British officials outside Nagpur, Jabalpur, and Pachmarhi was not as
formal and grand. Yet, even the small groups of British residents at district headquarters
maintained a separate British community through their contact and activities. Like the larger
towns , the British officers lived separately. At Balaghat me of the smallest district headquarters,
the officers' houses were located far to the west of the town and the railway station. East of their
houses was a "buffer zone" of public buildings, schools, and the town hall. Further east was the
market of Guzri Chauk, then Devi lake with Indian residential wards around it, and finally the
railway station.(75.2)
By the early 1880s at
least five to ten British officials with their families lived at each
district headquarters. British social and administrative activity in a "Humdrum District" centered
around the three most prominent administrators - the district commissioners, the British
Superintendent of Police, and the Civil Surgeon. As described by a Central P:vm:sjmior civil
servant in early 1880s, each of the "board of Guardians" of Humdrum District had thankless,
routine tasks to perform at the office. The head of the district spent most of his time "either
writing or hearing writing
read."(75.3)
++Page 76 was the District Commissioner's "co-adjuster and terrible shadow." en- forcing the law by
investigation and punishment. He spent most of his time, however, listening to his clerk sing-song
and nasal voice reciting police diaries sent in from outposts, and keeping alert to determine if he
should record a particular crime as having "occurred" or "not occurred." In doing this for his
reports, he needed to fine a balance between showing crime was on the wane, but that his
peace-keeping service was still vital. Occasionally he escaped the office drudgery to rush to the
scene of a re- ported crime to take evidence on the spot. Neither the District Commission- er nor
the District Superintendent of Police normally remained posted at the same district more than two
years. The Civil Surgeon, on the other hand, was rarely transferred. For this reason he was the
"patriarch" of the district, a fund of local lore, and a source of the latest gossip within the British
community.(76.1) ++Page 77 Apart from this monotony of work, the administrators carried on a simple social life
among themselves. Often they dined together for early morning breakfast. In the evening the Civil
Surgeon joined in a game of badminton "with the D. C.'s wife for his partner, and the D. C. and
D. S. P against him." Each Sunday they came "together for baking penance in the oven-like" and
"much buttressed" little church under its iron roof, the District Commissioner reading "the prayers
and the others murmuring responses in the intervals of mopping."(77.1) Social life was enlivened by the occasional visits of various officials. Two or three times a
year the priest of the Established Church came to the district to minister to the European
congregation and inquire about the condition of the Indian Christians. He would conduct the
European services before going to the bazaar to receive reports from the local Indian catechist.
Soon he returned "gladly to his European flock," who enjoyed his company war when he forgot
his religious position and played lawn-tenuis or conversed cheerfully with them after dinner.(77.2) In the third setting, that of touring the Indian countryside, the English administrator was physically the most isolated from the British -unity. There was neither the lively activities of official society at the capitals nor the daily rounds of the Guardians of the Humdrum ++Page 78 district headquarters. Yet, lonely camp life had its own pleasures and excitements. And the touring administrator was not completely isolated from communication with the British community; his daily mail brought family and personal letters, official correspondence, and news literature on events in the province and the Empire. English food, drink, manners, and attitudes were maintained in the relative solitude of the Indian countryside and forest. Annual touring groups ranged in size and importance from the Chief Commissioner's large entourage visiting district headquarters for the purpose of holding darbars (official audiences or public meetings) to a lone forest officer inspecting fire lines accompanied by one or two servants. On some occasions there were special tours, such as the tridecennial settlement investigations, or for famine work. But the most usual touring group consisted of a lme British officer with his staff and servants, going out on the annual winter inspection duty. J. B. Fuller, as Settlement Commissioner, recounted his own experiences in the Central Provinces. During the five months of November to Match one toured by camping . . I had two tents, with smaller ones for my clerk and servants ' One went on in the very early morning--some twelve .iles--to the next camping ground, where it was pitched by the time of my arrival . . . . I' the course of the morning ride from one camp to the other I ordinarily inspected three or four villages . . . . This brought me t o the next camping ground about ten o-clock, and thence onward to dinner time I was engaged in office work . . . . I generally put in six or seven hours at the office table. My papers reached me by spec a, runners . . . . Generally I received two mail bags full each day . . . . I often took a late afternoon - and sometimes a whole day--for shooting.(78.1) ++Page 79 Shooting game
was not only a most enjoyable sport in the jungles of the Central
Provinces, but English officers rationalized it as a necessity while they were away from their usual
food supplies of the district headquarters. Henry Sharp created his own food resources- while on
tour, he kept a buffalo in camp for milk and butter, and chickens for eggs. At first he contented
himself with Indian unleavened
bread (chapattis); later
his higher position and salary allowed him
to hire a cook to bake bread in camp. Meat was a real problem as it was "practically =obtainable
in the villages; and to carry about a flock of sheep [was] apt to be a nuisance. So me shot birds
and beasts and lived on game."(79.1) inexpensive . . . . There are no limits, no marches-all the world is before you. You wander where you will, and none can stop you; for there are no game laws, nor, except in government forest, any restrictions. In small game shooting there is none of the artificiality that robs the sport in the British Isles of some of its charm.(79.2) Other autobiographies of Central Provinces administrators are full of similar fond memories of
their hunting experiences while camping or while living in the
forests.(79.3) ++Page 80 The creation of a distinctive social and cultural world among the members of the British community had a double-edged effect. On the one hand, it brought British residents of the Central Provinces closer together and softened the harshness of their exile from their English home. On the other hand it buffeted them from the intrusion of India into their lives and reinforced the isolation of the British community from Indian society. All this tended to separate the rulers from the ruled and limit, if not exclude, most interaction except on a formal and administrative level. The British community consequently had a very limited and uneven interaction with the Indian population of the Central Provinces. Few Indians came into direct, personal, and long-tam contact with the English community or with individual English administrators. Villagers had the least contact. Occasionally an officer passed by their village on tour, or requisitioned some villagers for a hunting expedition. In the towns and at district headquarters Indians became accustomed to the "white faces," but, unless they were somehow involved in the provincial administration or with the British community, their contact was slight. Three sections of Indian society did have more contact with the British community - (i) personal servants of British families, (ii) Indian assistants to British officers, and (iii) some of the Indian urban elite. Personal servants sometimes became closely attached to British families, but their servile position restricted the. from full participation in the British community, Nor did servants transmit much of their rudimentary Anglicization to other Indians as they and their families frequently lived in special servants quarters in the ++Page 81 British section of town ; and they also often accompanied their masters from me post to mother. A few Indians, as administrative assistants or as prominent urban leaders, attained positions in which they came into fairly frequent and free contact with members of the British community. These Indians had to transcend several barriers which divided the British community from the general Indian population. There were barriers of education, knowledge or acquaintance with the English language and culture, and membership in a family which the British community recognized as obtaining a high social and economic standing. Even when Indians overcame, these, other barriers still remained which excluded them from complete and equal participation in the British community. Social institutions, such as the clubs, allowed only English membership. One British administrator noted the detrimental "two-fold effect on relations between Europeans and Indians" because of these clubs. He observed that they tended, first, to make Europeans a self-contained and rather isolated community. The British me ts the Indian in the office, in the law courts, in business promises, but social contacts, which would produce much mutual understanding, are often slight and formal. In the second place, Indians resent being excluded flom European clubs . . . . This produces a regretable cleavage.(81.1) One Indian newspaper editor of Hoshangabad also remarked on the aloofness of Europeans toward Indians which prevented the development of "mutual friendship and sympathy." He recounted a recent, unusual event when a British administrator invited Indian friends to his daughter's wedding ++Page 82 and said, "it would be well if other Europeans followed his example."(82.1) Besides exclusive British social institutions, recreational activities of the British community were beyond the reach of mat Indians and attracted few Indian participants. It was only after four decades of rule in the Central Provinces that the decennial review (1901) observed that a small number of educated Indians had finally began to imitate some aspects of European life styles: They build larger and better houses, more often the model of those occupied by Europeans . . . . They dress more in European styles . . . . many smoke cigarettes, drink soda water and cool it with ice; . . cricket, tennis and other games are more popular.(82.2) Game hunting was also difficult for most Indians. Except for a few Indians with special status, the
population was prohibited from owning and using guns by the Arms Act. Unlike the Englishmen
who constantly wrote of their hunting exploits in the Central Provinces, Indians had little
experience and wrote very little about it. The first book on hunting in the province written by an
Indian finally appeared in 1938.(82.3)
++Page 83 the new colonial administration expressed criticism and resentment against the superior and exclusive world of the British rulers. Only on special occasions, such as the celebration of the Queen's Jubilee in 1887, did a slightly larger number of Indians find an opportunity to symbolically participate in the world of the British ruling community. The activities of a few Central Provinces' families exemplify the trends of the influence of British culture in the lives of upper-class Indiana. The Chitnavis family of Nagpur became the most renowned of Indian collaborators with the British during the first decades of the province. As a high-caste Maratha Prabhu family, they had followed the Bhonsla rulers from Berar to Nagpur in the middle of the eighteenth century. At the Nagpur Bhonsla court they had served as secretaries and ministers until the middle of the nineteenth century. When the Central Provinces was formed in the 1860s, the British had given Gangadhar Rao Chitnavis the title of landlord over a large and wealthy estate. Both of his sons, Madhav Rao and Shenker Rao, were sent to Poona and Bombay for higher education in British-supported colleges. On the death of his father in 1871, Madhav Rao took charge of the family estate. From then until his own death in 1929, Madhav Rao actively participated in both Indian and British organizations. He helped in the establishment of the Rajya Sabha in 1886, and later attended meetings of the Indian National Congress and joined the Cow Protection Society (Gorakshini Sabha). For several years in succession he was elected to the presidency of the Nagpur Municipal Committee, and was made the first Indian representative for all of the Central Provinces on the Governer-General's Legislative Council in the mid- ++Page 84 and late 1890s. Madhav Rao's brother, Shenker Rao, joined the Indian provincial civil service in
1873 and rose to become me of the first two Indians to be appointed District Commissioner.
Shenker Rao also visited England with his wife in the 1880s, She was quite exceptional for an
Indian woman, insisting on accompanying Shenker Rao wherever he was posted, learning English
on her own, and acquainting herself with English manners so she could entertain English officials
in her home. She wrote of her travel and other
experiences in a Marathi book.(84.1)
The Bose family also exemplifies this combination, though the family did not arrive in Central Provinces until shortly after the province was formed. Bepin Krishna Bose grew up in a Vaishya family outside Calcutta and attended college in that city. He married the daughter of a Bengali public works engineer in the Central Provinces and began law practice at Jabalpur in 1872. But Nagpur promised a more lucrative practice, so he moved there in 1874. He soon began to participate in numerous activities, one of the first being a debate with Mr. Fraser on Utilitarianism. He also joined the municipal committee and boards of higher educational institutions, In 1888 he was appointed to the post of Government Advocate which he held off and on for several years. In the first decade of the twentieth century he succeeded Madhav Rao, serving three terms as the member from the Central Provinces on the Legislative Council, Bose wrote briefs and ++Page 85 pamphlets for various Indian organizations such as the Nagpur Landholders' Association. He
promoted the activities of the small Bengali community in the province, especially supporting the
education of Bengali boys. Bose participated in the worlds of British officialdom, of Indiana in the
Central Provinces, and of the dispersed Bengali
community.(85.1)
The Association
of the Aulad Hussain family with the British community consisted
primarily of official ties. In the middle of the nineteenth century the British awarded a
compensating pension to the Aulad Hussain family because of the murder of their father, Sabit
Ali, by a rebellious Hindu ruler in northern Central
Provinces.(85.2)
++Page 86 The Chitnavis, Bose and Hussain families represent upper-class Indian families who participated in the life and culture of the British community in varying degrees. Only a few other Central Provinces families attained similar positions which allowed them to bridge directly the worlds of the British community and Indian society. Those in a position somewhat below these prominent families, were a larger number who were aware of the activities of the British community though they did not associate freely with Englishmen . They included lawyers, doctors, teachers, lower Indian officials, and newspaper editors. They expressed their opinions about the influences of the British presence especially in non-English newspapers. The Indian-language press developed rather late in the province, from the 1870a onward, and voiced the sentiments of this second segment of Indian society. Much of their criticism centered around the British community's feelings of superiority and ethnocentricity, These Indians felt excluded from almost all British policy-decisions and became offended and expressed their displeasure about the demeaning disregard and ignorance of the English about Indian customs , activities and every-day life, Their sentiments appeared in Indian-language newspapers from the 1870s to the 1890s. One of the objections
of this section of Indians was the superior position of Englishmen.
The discrepancy in salaries between British and Indian officers, who had served the same length of
time, irritated Indians. Twice in the late 1880s newspapers called for the reduction of high salaries
given English officers. They claimed that India w too
poor to afford this luxury.(86.1)
++Page 87 that the British government's purpose in paying such high salaries was "to enrich its countrymen at
the expense of the natives," and to pay such high salaries to Englishmen was "downright robbery."
Contrary to one British Finance Committee's recommendations, the newspaper suggested that the
number of English officials and the amounts paid them be reduced and the number of lower Indian
officials increased.(87.1)
The same section
of Indians expressed their frustrations for being unable to influence
British policy. Though they presented their opinions to the administration on British laws and
policies, they received little recognition or consideration, During the controversy over the Ilbert
Bill in 1883, the Nyaya
Sudha reported that the Chief Commissioner of the province "did not
consider it worth while to consult a single
native."(87.2)
++Page 88 Another aspect
of British administrators' activities which annoyed Indians was the British
disrespect and disregard toward Indians of recognized status and position. It seemed to some
Indians that Englishman, whether deliberately or accidently, treated Indians as inferiors. Examples
of this type of treatment were reported by
the Nyaya Sudha in
1887 on the occasion of a darbar
(ceremonial meeting) in northern Central Provinces. The Chief Commissioner was to met with the
titled Indians (darbaris of
the Narbadda and Jabalpur Divisions at Jabalpur on the morning of
February sixteenth. To begin with, the British administration had failed to maintain a proper It of
darbaris in their order of precedence. Consequently some darbaris did not receive invitations,
"while ordinary peasants were invited." When the darbaris finally arrived at the proper time (9:30
A.M.) "they found to their disgust" that the Chief Commissioner was still break- fasting with the
District Commissioner; "they therefore had to stand in the sun for a long time." During the
meeting they were not seated in the proper order of precedence, so "there was a great deal of
ear-burning among the darbaris." No seating arrangements had been made at all for the four
young Chhattisgarh princes who were students at Jabalpur's Rajkumari
College.(88.1)
++Page 89 When the same Bhonsla. Raja was insulted by an English ticket collector at the Nagpur railway
station, the Nagpur Railway Gazette (English), rather than apologizing, called for a censure of the
Raja's behavior. An Indian newspaper dolefully remarked, "There was a time when high European
officers had to enter the Court of the Bhonsla rulers with great respect, and now a European boy
and an ordinary editor are able to insult and abuse the descendant with perfect impunity." The
newspaper ended with stoic consolation--"Such great changes
are brought about by time."(89.1)
Indian newspapers
objected to the derogatory British treatment, not only of darbaris, but
of others. At a sub-committee meeting of the Saugor Municipal Board, the only European
present, J. May, threatened to beat a Brahmin clerk with his shoe (as leather is considered ritually
polluting, this would be an extreme insult) if the clerk ever again forgot to remove his footwear
upon entering the sub-committee room. The Indian editor remarked - the Brahmin clerk "is a very
respectable gentleman and able to give lessons in manners for years to Mr. May who is a lad
hardly out of his teens."(89.2)
++Page 90 At various times
Indian newspapers also objected to British activities which used or
exploited or misused Indiana. One was the Westernized prostitution of Indian women for
Englishmen. In 1874 the Jabalpur
Samachar complained that the prostitution registration
procedures were so lax, and informal that they effected "virtuous women." Any woman , who was
not living with a husband or for other reasons, could be brought before a lower court judge and
registered as a prostitute. The editor personally visited the court and learned of cases where
women's reputations were ruined on a simple, uninvestigated
complaint.(90.1)
Mistreatment of Indians
was noted in other circumstances. In 1892 English soldiers in
Nagpur cruelly beat an old "Indian baker." Though
the Nyaya Sudha asked that an example be
made of the assailants, the soldiers received only six-weeks' imprisonment, without any fine or
compensation to the hospitalized
Indian.(90.4)
++Page 91 to employ public servants for private business, and in this case requested the English police officer
to compensate the deceased's
family.(91.1)
So, while an upper section of Indian society participated in the activities both of the British and Indian worlds, at least in a superficial way, mother section existed on the fringe, almost entirely excluded from the British community. Though they worked in professions associated with British rule, this section was both highly envious and critical of British administrators and of their official and non-official activities and attitudes. They envied the position and power and pay of the British officials; often they tried to influence the direction of British policy by expressing their opinions about the revision of laws. They criticized the derogatory manner in which Englishmen acted and thought about Indians and Indian values. When Englishmen. insulted, snubbed, harmed, or killed Indiana, they ++Page 92 became defensive and even dared to instruct Englishmen how to correct their behavior and advised them on how to compensate Indians for those insults. This section of Indian professionals experienced the deep frustrations inherent in their existence on the fringe of the British colonial world. Their suggestions for policy changes, their publicity of unhealthy interactions between Englishmen and Indians, and their advice for correcting abuses fell on deaf ears. Only the exceptional Englishmen read (or could read), subscribed to, or paid serious attention to local Indian language newspapers, and few skimmed through the confidential translations of selections from those papers that the Government collected for their information. Rather than attending to the mild criticisms and advice of Indians, English administrators concentrated on the Indian activities and attitudes which displayed support for the world of the British community, There were periodic occasions when Indians publicly participated in and seemed caught up in the British world. One example was when India celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign, in June 1897. During the Diamond Jubilee
observance of Queen Victoria's rule as Empress of India,
Englishmen were joined by Indians to celebrate British rule in India, This occasion differed in
several ways from the Silver Jubilee festivities of a decade
earlier.(92.1)
++Page 93 actual celebrations were greatly effected by two conditions that prevailed at the time : the province was suffering from its worst famine of several decades, and the monsoon rains, when they did come, fell intermittently during the days of the celebration in late June. Most of the festive
activity was concentrated at the four Divisional headquarters. At
Nagpur, both a Divisional headquarters and the provincial capital, a public meeting at the Town
Hall launched the celebrations. In spite of heavy rain, the building was "literally packed" with a
representative assembly of the population, Speeches were read, loyal hymns sung, and the
Manager of the Empress Mills, Benzonji Mehta, closed the proceedings by leading the assembly in
"three hearty cheers for the
Queen-Empress."(93.1)
++Page 94 collected a subscription which provided tea and sports for the children and a dance for the adults.
By these arrangements, the Commissioner felt, the -in object of the celebration had been
accomplished-- "no class of the community [had been] neglected or omitted from the public
rejoicing."(94.1)
However, me activity proved a failure.
Originally the Nagpur Municipal Committee had
selected members of a provincial delegation to personally present an address of congratulations
and loyalty to the Viceroy at Simla. In the and, each one of the delegates excused himself, "for
different reasons, principally illness."(94.2)
Raipur was the
headquarters of the most isolated Division, Chhattisgarh, in eastern
Central Provinces. The population there evidently had not yet developed the clear class
distinctions which the Nagpur Commissioner had observed. Yet the festive activities continued for
three whole days, the longest period for any of the Divisional Headquarters, During that time,
public offices were closed, and the laborers on the town's famine relief works were given three
day wages and told to go
home.(94.3)
++Page 95 the Urdu Branch School children. Most of the students received sweets and some were awarded cloth which had been woven by famine-distressed weavers. Next the City Girls' School was visited. More sweets and cloth were distributed and the National Anthem again sung. Finally sweets were distributed to the paupers in the poorhouse and to the Inmates of the leper asylum and the orphanage ward. In the afternoon about three thousand of the town poor (or more than one-tenth of the town's 1901 population) were fed a free dinner, "consisting of a mass of rice and pulse mixed." The morning of the twenty-first opened with activities to reclaim Lendi tank. It was converted "into a people park" to be known as "the Victoria Diamond Jubilee Commemoration Park." Sixty trees were planted and a fountain declared open with a speech by a prominent local lawyer, Hari Singh Gour. The second Madras Infantry conducted regimental sports on the parade ground that after- noon. In the evening the Commissioner entertained European residents with a dinner followed by fireworks and illuminations, Unfortunately the illuminations "did not come off wall owing to the wind." On the twenty-second the police and office servants held sports events near the Commissioner's Court House. The District Commissioner reported that the activities of "these days were characterized by cheerfulness and loyalty. " The town of Jabalpur, headquarters of the northern-most Division of the province, celebrated the Jubilee on the twenty-first and twenty- second of June. Unlike Nagpur with its class distinctions or Raipur with its government-subsidized participants of students, poor, military, and police, the celebration at Jabalpur was organized along ++Page 96 religious lines. Although there was an overall Jubilee Committee, the Hitkarini Sabha, the
Anjuman Islamia, and the Oriental Club all had separate committees and activities. The
membership of these associations was almost exclusively Hindu, Muslim, and British respectively.
As a result of the general meeting a month before the celebrations, fifteen hundred rupees were
pledged in subscriptions. The money fed two thousand paupers
with puris and sweetmeats on the
twenty-first of June at Raja Gokuldas' garden. Of it, Rs. 253 was used to purchase a special silver
casket to contain an engrossed and printed congratulatory address to be presented to the Viceroy
at Simla. Raja Gokuldas, the most prominent landlord and business man of the town led the Simla
delegation.(96.1)
The Anjuman Islamia also met the same morning at their High School Hall. The Hall and courtyard were decorated with garlands and flags "in regular order like brave and faithful soldiers." The ceremony ++Page 97 included a "long and fervent speech" by Maulvi Saiyid Ali Ahmed Khan, an original Arabic poem
by professor Abdul Jabar, and Persian and Urdu poems by the teacher Muhib Khan and the
student Abdul Kadir. In conclusion a prayer was offered for Her Majesty's long life. Five thousand
of the city's poor "were fed sumptuously," as Muslims received bread and meat and Hindus
khichree and
ghee. Fireworks were planned at the Anjuman Islamia school in the evening, but rain
postponed them until the evening of June twenty-fifth, when "me hundred and one bombs were
fired in salute."(97.1)
Hoshangabad was the
seat of the fourth Division, The district's celebrations were unique
in that in no other District had so many towns--five in all--celebrated the festival. Besides the
headquarters town of Hoshangabad, Seoni-Malwa, Sohagpur, Harda and Pachmarhi all celebrated
the Sixteenth Year of Queen Victoria's reign. In Hoshangabad, on the morning of the
twenty-second "all classes of the community" gathered at the Government High School to present
"eulogistic" speeches in English, Hindi and Urdu, on Her Majesty's reign. "All classes" included
"Hindus, Muhamnadans, Gonda, Korkus, and Native
Christians."(97.3)
++Page 98 At Harda three thousand poor were fed; Europeans and Indians joined in sports followed by a nautch (Indian popular dance presentation); the Police and Volunteers paraded, and a c ommemo ration service was held at the church. At Pachmarhi a commemorative church service was held on the twentieth of June, attended by the Chief Commissioner and most of the English community, In the evening the Chief Commissioner gave a State dinner; and subsequently, money was raised by a subscription to purchase food for the poor. Unfortunately, in Hoshangabad district "the inclemency of weather" destroyed illuminations everywhere. These celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign in 1897 formed one of the high points of British colonialism in the province. The variety of activities and organizations involved in the celebrations provides a capsule glimpse of British-Indian society in the province at this special occasion when relations between the British community and the Indian population was perhaps the most extensive and convivial ever during colonial rule. Reports on the celebration noted both the similarities and differences evident in the different Districts. Nagpur had its "classes," Raipur its officially subsidized or supported groups, Jabalpur its ethno-religious associations, and Hoshangabad its five separate festive canters. All followed some similar patterns. In all there were both general and special group meetings, where loyal speeches were made, the national anthem sung, and the Queen cheered. In addition, prisoners were freed in the Queen's name, the poor entertained and fed, sports events held, and fireworks illuminated, where the monsoon cooperated. The focus of attention was ++Page 99 the Queen-Empress, honored with such high esteem and at such a distance by the Indian participants that she almost seemed to acquire an abstract, ideal and quasi-religious quality. Indeed many of the activities were reminiscent of Indian religious festivals with pious offerings of words, money, wears, and food for the diary. It is bard, thus, to know exactly how the Indian participants perceived the celebration--as a symbolic affirmation of British rule, or just one more Indian festival among others. The failure of the Nagpur delegates to go to Simla, and the unrperesentative character of the Jabalpur delegates who did go, does not altogether land support to the British official opinions that it was a spontaneous occasion, or that it was an all-inclusive, enthusiastic demonstration of loyalty to the distant Crown. Even during the Jubilee celebrations, the activities tended to reiterate rather than dispel the impression of a separation of the British community from the rest of the population. At each town the British community held exclusive gatherings--at Nagpur in the Civil Station area, at Raipur with the commissioner's private evening dinner, at Jabalpur with the Oriental Club's thanksgiving and musical services, and at Pachmarhi with the Chief Commissioner presiding over European activities, Throughout these celebrations, which symbolically celebrated the ties between India and England, the English retreated for some activities into their social and cultural world apart from Indians. Perhaps it is not surprising that the Nagpur delegation may have lacked some enthusiasm, or that the recipients of sweets and food may not have fully understood who was the distant and abstract Empress of India. To many Indians the Diamond Jubilee celebration my not ++Page 100 have appeared a very appropriate time for praising British rule, nor a very jubilant occasion in the lives of those who were literally dying during the wide-spread f-ine that coincided with the celebration. However, the Diamond Jubilee did repreaent an unusual event in the interaction between the British and Indian worlds of the province. For two or three days, more Indians than ever before were momentarily drawn into association with the British world. Normally few Indiana were more than remotely concious of or had more than official contact with the British community. Only a few prominent Indian families such as the Chitnavises and Boses succeeded in developing closer associations with the British world. The fringe section of Indian professionals were not really included in the British world, They were conscious and critical of the effects of the British presence, but largely ineffective in participating or influencing the activities of the British community or the administration. The rest of the population rarely came into contact with or were offered more than a distant glimpse into the life of the British community within their own country. Momentarily the Diamond Jubilee celebration offered an occasion which gathered together participants from prominent Indian families, professionals, officially supported groups, the lower section of the urban population, and the British community to commemorate British colonialism. Still the British community remained primarily within the walls of its own world. The survey of these decades has drawn attention to a number of important developments and interactions. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries a small but active British community ++Page 101 was created, developed, and maintained in the Central Provinces, It was homogeneous in character, consisting mostly of British official. and their families, and it modeled its social and cultural beha~ior on the examples of other British communities in India and England. Though the British community was small in numbers and dispersed to over a:::h different district centers, its members developed a "family tradition" which ensured close communication and periodic meetings, Samll enclaves of English life were found in a number of settings: in the larger towns, in district headquarters, and even while on tour. Members of the British community lived physically apart from the Indian population, pursued typical British recreational activities, and maintained domestic habits of English clothes and food as much as possible. One of the main reasons for the limited social and cultural interaction between the English and the Indiana was the character of this British community, Rather than taking clues and models for social behavior from Indians in the Indian setting, members of the British community looked outside and beyond the province. Most Indiana were excluded from the British community. Consequently there was little, and sometimes no direct contact or opportunity to interact between the two communities. With the arrival of the British administrators to the Central Provinces in the 1860s, still another world of activity was added to the already diverse Indian setting. Though these worlds were adjacent in time and geography, there was little interaction. A fw Indians gradually adapted English dress, language, recreational activities, ++Page 102 and even religion, But there were few if any English who took on equivalent and corresponding Indian aspects of behavior or thought. The underlying reasons for this are several, and would emphasize the position of British administrators as foreign colonial rulers, most of whom grew up, furloughed, and retired in England, after spending their working years in India. As administrators in India, their status pay, and position was determined by an English colonial system. They lived independent of Indians and of the local social structure and economic conditions. In their British enclaves they were Englishmen in India but not of India. As this chapter shows, a primary goal of British administrators was to re-create an English way of life at the exclusion of Indian influences as much as possible. only a small section of Indians were able to penetrate into the periphery of the British world while most Indians felt excluded from all but official contact with the colonial community. Back to the top.
60.1. Bernard S. Cohn, "The British in Benares: a Nineteenth Century Colonial Society," Comparative Studies in Society and History 4 (January 1962): and Robert Eric Frykenberg, "British Society in Guntur during the Early Nineteenth Century," in Ibid., 4: 200-208. Back 63.1. See Census of 1911, Central Provinces vols. by J. T. Marten (Allahabad: Pioneer Press, 1912). Back 64.1. Imperial Gazetteer of India, Central Provinces, Provincial Series (Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, 1908), pp. 30-31. Back 64.2. James W. Best, Forest Life in India (London: John Murray, 1935), p. 99. Back 65.1. Alfred C. Lyall, letters, 3 May 1864 and 5 January 1865, in Lyall papers. Back 65.2. Ibid., 11 June 1864. Lyall soon became the Commissioner of Berar and then advanced to higher government appointments. Back 65.3. Henry Sharp, Good-bye India (London: Oxford University Press, 1946), pp. 16-17. Sharp arrived at the place and during the time which is the setting for R. Kipling's story of a British officer's son and his pet mongoose, entitled Rikki-tikki-tavi. Back 66.1. Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces to the Government of India, 17 November 1890, CPHP, November 1890, #15, par. 10. Back 066.2. Government of India to Secretary of State for India, 3 January 1913, in CPAP, Appointments, January 1914, #2, par. 14, p. 16. Back 68.1. Andrew H. I. Fraser, Among Rajahs and Ryots (reprinted., Allahabad, Chugh Publications, 1970), pp. 24-25. Back 69.1. Fuller, Experiences, p. 38. Back 69.2. Fraser, Rajahs, p. 25. Back 70.2. CPHP, July 1902, General, #36. Back 71.1. Fuller, Experience, pp. 46-47, 54-55. Back 72.1. John Miller to A. MacDonnell, 27 July 1905, Anthony MacDonnell Papers, Oxford University, England, e. 215, p. 45. Back 74.1. Pioneer (Allahabad), 1 January 1870, p. 5 Back 74.2. Ibid, 28 December 1890. Fraser, Rivett-Carnac, and Craddock are mentioned. Back 75.1. Best, Forest Life, pp. 99-100. Back 75.2. Balaghat Dg (1907), p. 311. Back 75.3. Pekin [Lewis Kossuth Laurie], In the C. P-Sketches in Prose and Verse (Allahabad: Pioneer Press, 1881), p. 102. Back 76.1. Ibid., pp. 111-112. Back 78.1. Fuller, Experience, pp. 40-41. Back 79.1. Sharp, India, p. 27. Back 79.3. Besides Sharp, the other autobiographies which describe wild game, hunting elephants, tigers, etc., are Fraser, Rajahs, Forsyth, Highlands, and Best, Forest Life. Back 81.1. Sharp, India, pp. 21-22. Back 82.1. Mauj-i-Narbadda, 1 May 1891, in Selections from the Vernacular Newspapers, or SVN. Unless otherwise indicated all quotes and references from Indian language newspapers are in the SVN. pp. 341-42. Back 82.2. Frank Sly, Memorandum on the Condition of the People of the Central Provinces during the Decennial Period, 1892 to 1902 (Nagpur: 1902), par . 33. Back 82.3. P. C. Bose, Hunting in the Central Provinces (n, p.: 1938). Back 84.1. Amcha Jagacha Pravas, "Our Tour All over the World," listed in The Commercial and General Directory of the Central Provinces and Berar, ed. Shridhar Narayan Huddar (Nagpur: T. N. Joshi, 1939), p. 962. Back 85.1. Bepin Krishna Bose, Stray Thoughts on Some Incidents in My Life (Madras: G. A. Natesan, 1923 ?). Back 85.2. IFP, Judicial, July 1865, #5-11, "Murder of Meer Sabit Ali of Bijeragogarh;" and on the same subject, IFP, Judicial, September 1865, #19-20. Aulad Hussain also refers to this in his Report on the Land Revenue Settlement of the Jabalpur District (Nagpur: Secretariat Press, 1896), p. 5. Back 85.3. Aulad Hussain, Madhya Pradeshika Bandabast Ain (Jabalpur: 1895). Back 85.4. Nyaya Sudha, 23 March 1892, p. 108, and 28 May 1892, p. 185. Back 86.1. Nyaya Sudha, 2 June 1886, p, 114-15; and Subodh Sindhu, 18 August 1886, p. 599. Back 87.1. Subodh Sindhu, 12 February 1889, pp, 105-06. Back 87.2. 26 September, p. 810. Back 87.3. Subodh Sindhu, 13 November 1889, p. 722. Back 87.4. Nyaya Sudha, 13 November 1889, pp. 721-22. The same paper had earlier run a series of articles when the Tenancy Act was being formulated. Nyaya Sudha, 8 November 1882, pp. 764-67; 29 November, pp. 820-24; 6 December, pp. 849-50; and 13 December, pp. 868-72. Back 88.1. Nyaya Sudha, 9 March 1887, p. 167. Back 88.2. Subodh Sindhu, 31 January 1895, p. 59. Back 88.3. Nyaya Sudha, 21 August, 1893, p. 340. Back 89.1. Subodh Sindhu, 24 February 1892, p. 68. Back 89.2. Nyaya Sudha, 17 July 1893, p. 290. Back 89.3. Subodh Sindhu, 23 January 1895, p. 57. Back 90.1. Jabalpur Samachar, July and August 1874, pp. 415-18. Back 90.2. 23 May 1888, p. 343. Back 90.3. 8 January 1893, p. 37. Back 90.4. 10 August 1892, p. 298, and 21 September 1892, p. 358. Back 91.1. July 1873, pp. 463-64. Back 91.2. 1 April 1877, p. 173. Back 91.3. Pioneer, 16 January 1891, p. 5 . Back 92.1. See the reports in the Indian press in SVN of 1887. Back 93.1. District Commissioner, E. R. K. Blenkinsop, to Commissioner of Nagpur Division, 5 July 1897, CPHP, November 1897, General #23. Back 93.2. W. A. Nedham to Chief Commissioner, 17 July 1897, Ibid. These official comments on the celebrations seem tinged with exaggeration , e.g. "representative body," "spontaneous demonstration." Back 94.2. Central Provinces to Government of India, 1 November 1897, Ibid. Back 94.3. Commissioner A. D. Younghusband, to Chief Commissioner, 10 September 1897, Ibid. Back 96.1. Although the delegation included another Indian and a European it was hardly representative. Ballabhdas, the other Indian, was Gokuldas' nephew and Mr. Wright was manager of Gokuldas' cotton mills at Jabalpur. Back 96.2. President, Hitkarini Sabha, Jabalpur, to District Commissioner, 7 July 1897, Ibid. Back 97.1. President, Anjuman Islamia, Jabalpur, to District Commissioner, 3 July 1897, Ibid. Back 97.2. B. Robertson, District Commissioner, Jabalpur, to Commissioner, 12 July 1897, Ibid. Back 97.3. H. A. Crump, District Commissioner Hoshangabad, to Commissioner of the Narbadda Division, 30 July 1897, Ibid. Back Back to the top.
[From Colonial Administration and Social Developments in Middle India: The Central Provinces, 1986-1921. Ph. D. 1980 dissertation by Philip McEldowney]
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