NigG (#208),
...Quote:
Originally Posted by MPN11 View Post
A nice tale of the Days of Empire... Such a shame they all wanted to get rid of us 'after the War'...
Well, not "all", IMHO. In 1947 the population of the subcontinent was, I believe, around 400,000,000 (it was not so much "the jewel in the crown of Empire" as the whole thing). Of these, perhaps 500,000 (the most highly [often British] educated), intellectualy sophisticated class of major city-dwellers, who had been suffused with the idea of independence, and saw the advantage to themselves in it, campaigned tirelessly for it. They were skilled in the art of stoking-up popular resentment against British rule, hence the appearance of "Jai Hind" ("Quit India") daubed all over on buildings and railway trucks from 1946.
...None of my aunts or uncles had any problems on the street, except for one who was spat at by a group of passing youths...
This would have been in the last days (and only in a town, I surmise). Earlier they would not have dared, the Indian Police would have tracked down the offenders and given them a damn' good hiding with their
lathis.
The great, silent majority ("Village India") were content with life under thr Raj. For the first time in their history, their lives were ruled by a Power which was often insensitive, sometimes harsh and domineering, but never corrupt. They could rely on justice from a British administrator against a rich and grasping landlord or moneylender - for everyone knew a British judge could not be "bought". They had a national, effective Police Force. They had a single stable currency throughout the land (the Rupee) which was locked to sterling. There was one law for all. Above all, they had Pax Britannica, which sounds an airy-fairy concept until you lose it (in the communal riots which followed Partition, the death roll was estimated as two million; today's revisionist historians have massaged that down to a million - but I prefer the original figure).
(In 1919, a Brigadier Dyer had been excoriated for the "Amritsar Massacre", in which some 400 Indian civilians had been killed. But this was "Indian on Indian" - so it's all right, then).
Was British Rule in India perfect ? No, it wasn't. Was it immeasurably better than anything which had gone on before ? Certainly ! My old friend, Flight Lieutenant Niel (sic) Ratan Ker (RIP), Indian born and knowing the country, visited many times postwar, and told me that he often heard, from the older people: "I wish the British would come back !"
Danny.
PS: At the end of the war, I remember reading "Mother India" by (Mr) Beverley Nichols. Checking Google for "beverley nichols mother india", I am surprised to learn that "Mother India" was actually written by Katherine Mayo. Nichols had incorporated it into his "Verdict on India". The Brazilian River has a Kindle of Mayo's "Mother India" for £0.99, and of Nichols' "Verdict on India" for £3.98
Google's menu to input "beverley nichols mother india" offers first item "India's Partition: The Story of Imperialism in Retreat". Well worth a read.
D.