British Social Life in India 1608 - 1937

Dennis Kincaid, David Farrer

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9780429870309
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

First published in 1938, the author describes the ways in which the British lived in India from the early adventurous period of the East India Company until the 1930s when modern means of travel and communication enabled the sahibs to keep in close touch with home and eschew oriental influences. He describes their amusements and sports, their domestic arrangements, their relations with the native population. There is a delicious period panorama of Simla in the eighties. He gives a careful historical account of the growth and fate of the Eurasian population. The approach throughout is decorative rather than academic, and leads to a highly entertaining pageant of the British in India.

Chapter I

IN 1608 English merchants had received permission to settle for trade; they built a factory and in 1618 established the hierarchy and precedence of their community, the chief of the company taking the title of President in imitation of the Dutch.

Surat lies twelve miles up the River Tapti in the warm and fertile plain of Gujarat. Few boats came up the river to Surat, and these few were always flat-bottomed coasting vessels. The ocean-going European merchantmen anchored at the port of Swally. There you might count the masts of several hundred ships, only a minority of them European; Arab dhows with red sails and Chinese junks and Mogul vessels carrying pilgrims to Jiddah, the port of Mecca.

European travellers found the customs examination a tedious ordeal. Every trunk, box and parcel had to be opened and sometimes shoes and hats were removed and peered into.¹ The customs officials wandered about with a retinue of black slaves carrying whips to dissuade intending smugglers. They were little kings in their own domain and levied duty on articles at their own valuation. They insisted on levying duty on the buttons worn by Europeans in their coats, not only on their first arrival at the port but each time they left their ships. This was particularly annoying for the pursers of English ships who often had to make several visits ashore to arrange for reprovisioning the ship and, as one of them complained, "in a short time the very intrinsick value of the buttons would be spent in customs". If the customs officials found anything specially attractive in the foreigner's luggage they would put it on one side, pretending that they were not sure of the rate at which customs-dues should be levied on this article; and the owner never saw it again.

Emerging from the customs shed the new arrival hired a conveyance to take him to Surat. There was a wide choice in carriages. You could travel in "a chariot drawn by two Buffaloes attended by olive-coloured Indian footboys who can very prettily prattle English" as did Mr. Herbert, who would one day abandon commerce for a career in the parliamentary forces and become one of Fairfax's commissioners; or you could engage a great coach, such as most of the English merchants used, drawn by two white oxen "with circling Horses as black as a Coal, each Point tipped with Brass, from whence came Brass Chains across to the Headstall which is all of Scarlet, their flapping Ears snipped with Art".¹ Jangling and jolting the carriage carried the traveller through the alleys of the port. Beggars stared at the foreigner and clamoured for bakshish. But, as Dr. Fryer noticed with relief, you were not troubled "with Boys so rude as in England". Their chief fault was their Eastern curiosity. They followed every foreigner with inquisitive comments and would "presently upon their punctilio's with God Almighty and interrogate" the traveller. Otherwise "they are very Respectful", continued Dr. Fryer, "unless they get Drunk when are they Monarchs and it is Madness to oppose them."

It was relief to come out into open country and enjoy the prospect of wide green fields, richly cultivated and, in their evidences of efficient husbandry, almost reminiscent of the farm-lands of England were it not for the hundreds of peacocks that clustered about the stagnant pools and an occasional camel moving jerkily in the shadow of dusty palm-groves. The roads were shady with over-arching banyan-trees and the traveller would remark the green parrots chortling and screaming as they flew from tree to tree, and on the branches "an infinite number of great Bats, hanging by the Clawes, making a shrill Noise". He would be lucky if he were not offered, by officious guides, the startling information that "this Fowle ingendreth in the Ear".¹ Then in the distance you saw Surat Castle "well-walled, ditched, reasonable great and faire with a number of faire pieces of ordnance, whereof some of exceeding greatnesse. Before this lyeth a pleasant greene in the midst of which is a Maypole to hang a light on"¹ and all round "very many noble lofty Houses, flat at Topp and Terraced with Plaster". The road led through the gardens of the city, which lay outside the city walls. In these the Indian merchants wandered on warm evenings "to take the Air and feast in pleasant Summer houses". There were many fountains and rivulets of fresh water and "Grottoes descending underground by huge Arches and Stone Steps shaded by Trees on each hand".

And so, passing through the clamour of the streets thronged with as cosmopolitan a crowd as you could find anywhere in Asia, the traveller reached at last the English factory and must have felt a sober satisfaction to note that it was

built of Stone and excellent Timber with good carvings without Representations, very strong for that each Floor is Half a yard thick at least, of the best cement, very weighty . . . with upper and lower Galleries, or Terras walks. The President had spacious Lodgings with noble Rooms for Counsel and Entertainment.

From the roof rose a number of flag-poles with English flags moving in the wind. This dignified exterior was, however, somewhat spoiled by the confusion and uproar in the courtyard where "the Packers and Warehouse-keepers, together with Merchants bringing and receiving Musters, made a meer Billinsgate, for if you make not a Noise they hardly think you intent on what you are doing".¹

The head of the factory was the President and he lived in almost as great state as the Mogul Governor. Outside the door of his bedchamber stood servants with silver staves and when he appeared they followed him from room to room. If he went downstairs a picket of liveried guardsmen sprang to attention in the hall, and if he left the factory "Bandarines and Moors under two Standards marched before him". He was provided with "well-filled stables for pleasure or services" and he had his own chaplain, physician, surgeon, linguist and mint-master. At his entry into the dining-room trumpets blew and while he sat at table violins played softly. All the English merchants dined together in the hall of the factory, the President at the head of the table and the others seated in order of seniority. On certain Church festivals, however, they dined in the gardens outside the city. They went in solemn procession, the President and his lady in a palanquin with banners ahead, the Council in ox-drawn coaches of special splendour, each having " a Four Square Seat, inlaid with Ivory ", and the other factors on Arab horses whose saddles were of embroidered velvet and whose headstalls, reins and cruppers were of solid silver. All the dishes and drinking-vessels were of massive silver. Each diner was attended by a page with a silver basin and ewer, so that he might wash both before and after the meal. A peculiarly English grace prescribed by the elders of the Council was intoned by the chaplain. "We, Thy unworthy creatures do most humbly implore Thy goodness for a plentiful effusion of Thy grace upon our employers, that we may live virtuously in due obedience to our superiors. . ." Generally there were many and various courses. "Cabob" was a favourite dish, not unlike a goulash; "dumpoked fowl ", that is, chicken boiled in butter and stuffed with raisins and almonds; "mango achar and sony sauce". On Sundays for dinner there would be "Deer and antelopes, Peacocks, hares and partridges and all kinds of Persian Fruits, Pistachoes, Plums, Apricots, Cherries". But meat was sometimes scarce and though the senior merchants never went without, the common sailors had to fast twice a week and content themselves with saffron rice. Beef was unprocurable. Captain Downton had attempted to start an abattoir but Hindu humanitarians had bribed the Mogul Governor to prohibit this; pork was, of course, unheard of in Musulman territory; and so the English had to satisfy their seventeenth century appetites with mutton and chicken. At first some of the young factors tried to supplement this meagre diet by shooting doves and pigeons but the tender-hearted Hindus would implore them not to do this, and would as a last resort offer them money to spare the poor birds. This method of persuasion was so successful that it became a regular practice for impecunious young sportsmen (and the contrast between their splendid style of living and their small salaries was responsible for general indebtedness among all the junior factors) to take out a gun near some rich Hindu's house and talk loudly and ferociously about the number of pigeons they would massacre that afternoon till the Hindu ran out with tears in his eyes and money in his hands. Only on Sundays were European wines served at table; on weekdays they drank Persian wines from Shiraz and, more commonly, arak. Arak was evidently an acquired taste and the French traveller Bernier was surprised at the English liking for it. He described it as "a drink very hot and penetrating like the brandy made of corn in Polan. It so falls upon the nerves that it often causeth shaking hands in those that drink a little too much of it." On the other hand Captain Symson attributed to arak various medicinal properties. It was "good for the gripes ... in the morning laxative and in the evening astringent". But he added that immoderate indulgence in arak made drinkers " so restless that no place is cool enough; and therefore they lie down on the ground all night which occasions their being snatched away in a very short time". Occasionally the factors dined with Muhammadan friends and found the pulavs and birianis delicious. These meals were, however, of enormous length and coffee was served between courses. And once they could persuade their hosts to ignore the Prophet's ban, they found Musulman heads stronger than their own. They were " not content with such little glasses as we drink out of, nor Claret nor Rhenish (which they call Vinegar) but Sack and Brandy out of the Bottle they will Tiifle till they are well warmed ".¹ But Western science could still score a minor success, and Indians who first witnessed the opening of a bottle of beer expressed a George II-like surprise at the bubbles and froth. "It is not", they cried, "the sight of the drink flying out of the bottle, but how such liquor could ever be put in ".² On occasion, however, the effect of beer and brandy on the temper of a Muhammadan unused to alcohol was unfortunate. A party at the Mogul Governor's was interrupted by the host falling into a sudden rage with some dancmg-girls and ordering their instant decapitation, there in the dining-room, before the eyes of the startled English guests. Whatever their opinions, however, the guests cannot have ventured on too open an expression of disapproval, even when they left the palace, for there were spies everywhere. The chief of these in Surat was called the "Harcarrah" and he sent his reports direct to Delhi. He

harkens to all kind of news, whether true or false, listens to everything that happens, whether of moment or no account and reports to the Great Mogul whatever is done or spoken of; but with so soft a pen that nothing may offend, considering the profound veneration due to such a powerful prince whose frowns are mortal.

Fortunately, perhaps, the Harcarrah was even more interested in comets and earthquakes and other portents than in seditious gossip. He related, with some concern, that in a village near Surat " a monster without a head and with his eyes placed in his breast every night cryed out with a horrid noise, 'Destroy and kill'. At hearing this read the King (Aurangzeb) said calmly, ''twas the twelfth century, when the Prophet foretold strange things in nature should happen'."1

On holidays the factors amused themselves with archery and musket-shooting; or they would stroll round the bazaar, the temples and the old palaces. They were interested in Indian religions, though, like most foreigners, it was the seamy side of Indian religious life that intrigued them. Mr. Hamilton was excited by the stories he was told of a sect called the "Molacks who observe heathenish customs. They have a yearly Feast, but the time of its celebration is only known to themselves, wherein, after much Mirth and Jollity, each Sex withdraws to a Room. The women take each a Handkerchief and go in the dark promiscuously among the Men." They admired the earnest attachment of Hindus to their faith, their quiet and reverent worship (or "decent cringings" as Mr. Hamilton put it). But the extravagances of the Yogis excited their laughter and exasperation. "I have seen a fanciful Rascal", exclaimed Mr. Hamilton, " seven Foot high with a large Turband of his own Hair wreathed about his Head, and his Body bedaubed with Ashes and Water, sitting quite naked under the Shade of a Tree, with pudenda like an Ass."And if they chanced upon a conjurer in a corner of the bazaar they could not resist joining his audience. Then as now the mango-trick was a popular feature of the performance. Dr. Fryer relates how he saw some conjurers

present a Mock-creature of a Mango-tree, arising from the Stone in a short space (which they did in Hugger Mugger, being very careful to avoid being discovered) with Fruit Green and Ripe; so that a man must stretch his fancy, to imagine it Witchcraft; though the common Sort think no less.

Was it real fruit? To test this a friend of Mr. Ovington's "pluckt one of these Mangoes and fell sick upon it, and was never well as long as he kept it till he consulted a Brahmin for his health, who prescrib'd his only Remedy would be the restoring of the Mango, by which he was restord to his Health again".

Many of these young factors must have been pretty rough diamonds, for one of the earliest resolutions of the Company was "not to employ any gentleman in any place of charge". And when the King began to negotiate for a place for a penurious but deserving knight, the Company fell into a panic at the prospect of this aristocratic recruit and petitioned the King to "be allowed to sort theire business with men of their own qualitye". They were particularly afraid of the martial propensities of seventeenth-century gentlemen; like their cousins in the London counting-houses they regarded soldiers as unrighteous and lewd men who would trouble the godly tenor of their lives. And soldiers provoked fighting, and fighting led to unnecessary expense. Look at the Portuguese, they said, "notwithstanding their many rich residences they are beggared by keeping of soldiers". This did not mean that every clerk and factor was not prepared to buckle on a sword and shoulder a musket as readily as the London apprentices who defied Rupert's squadrons; when they spoke of soldiers they had in mind the ferocious mercenaries who thronged the London taverns, bragging of skirmishes in the Low Countries and always ready to pick a quarrel, a very general pest in seventeenth-century Europe. Another reason for prejudice against aristocratic employees was the fear that they would not be amenable to the discipline imposed on all servants of the Company, whose way of life resembled that of students in a well-conducted college. All had to sleep in the factory whose gates were only open from dawn till dusk. With the coming of night the Company's servants retired into a virtuous seclusion, congratulating themselves on their self-imposed remoteness from the tumult beyond their gates, where like some great City of the Plain, Surat awoke to new liveliness in the cool of twilight; and in addition to the strains of music and song there came faintly through barred windows, to the ears of the factors the noise of police activity; for their Superintendent's "Business is to scower the Streets and Brothels of Idle Companions; so that all Night long he is heard by his Drums and Trumpets, shouting and hallooing of his Crew in their Perambulation". Any youth returning to the factory after sundown was fined five weeks' salary, which was distributed among the poor. Absence from prayers, which were held twice daily, was visited with a fine of half a crown on weekdays and five shillings on Sundays.¹ Oaths were penalised at a shilling a time, and there was a variety of punishments for being drunk "and thereby prostituting the worthiness of our Nation and Religion to the calumnious Censure of the Heathen". Even the maximum amount to be drunk was regulated and though the allowance would appear to be liberal—"not more than half a pint of brandy together with one quart of wine at any meal"—yet no doubt there were found many to grumble at the restriction. But wine was not the only refreshment, for as Mr. Mandelslo noted, "at our ordinary meetings we took only The which is commonly used all over the Indies as a drug that cleanses the Stomach and digests the superfluous humours". It was not drunk with milk, though sometimes candy sugar was dissolved in it, but the factors with more delicate palates brewed it with a variety of spices and "the more curious with conserved lemons". A few packets were sent home to friends in England where there was an outcry against this "hay water"; but the doctors, as usual scenting profit in a new drug, were loud in their advocacy of its qualities. For long, however, it was considered an oddity and in an order despatched in 1664 it was included in a cargo of oil of cinnamon, "rarities of birds, beasts or other curiosities and some years later Leadenhall Street remarked as though with indulgent surprise that "very good tea might be put up in tutinneague Pots".

Sundays must have been tedious; for in addition to the services there were two sermons read out by the President. But there were compensations on " the great Feasts of Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide" for then, as a contemporary wrote, "we have the Solemn Service, publike Feasts and noe great busynes permitted to be done in the factory house and all the country people know why we are soe solemn and feast and are Merry. Soe allsoe for Gunpowder Treason Day," though one cannot help feeling that Indians must have wondered at this persistent observance of an abortive plot when in their own country ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Original Title
• PREFACE
• Contents
• PROLOGUE
• CHAPTER I
• CHAPTER II
• CHAPTER III
• CHAPTER IV
• CHAPTER V
• CHAPTER VI
• CHAPTER VII
• CHAPTER VIII
• CHAPTER IX
• CHAPTER X
• CHAPTER XI
• CHAPTER XII
• INDEX