E. West

“ Every year, for the last half century, has been drawing India nearer to Great Britain, yet the people of the latter country hardly know more of the former than they did fifty years ago, and, apparently, care just as much about it as they did then, "What will they say in England?" is the mental ejaculation of everyone out here when anything noteworthy takes place. ”

“ Old officers, whose memory reaches back forty or fifty years, bear witness to the great improvement that has taken place in the tone of Indian society since steam, the telegraph, and the over land route have brought England so much nearer. In the old days a white woman was rarely seen out of the Presidency towns, and few even there. Now, wherever there is a station, no matter how remote, ladies are found, humanising all within their influence, and preventing that degeneration from courtesy and delicacy of feeling that would infallibly ensue without their presence. ”

“ An uncompromising advocate of any particular party is very rarely found in this country; for as there is no inducement to gain one side in preference to another, an independent stand is taken, and a measure is never condemned out of sheer opposition to the party in power. General politics are thus surveyed with a calmness that almost wears the appearance of indifference, though, in fact, it is far removed from it; but every measure relating to India. ”

“ A good deal of bickering and heart burning is often created by this petty spirit, especially where rival claims come in contact, and she who arrogates to herself the dignity of being the head of the society in some station finds a rival contesting her right to the proud position.
But to see the Anglo-Indian society flourishing in all its purity, it is necessary to go up country to some station where the English inhabitants are confined to the civil, military, and uncovenanted. In such a place the virtues and defects of the several classes may readily be perceived by even an ordinary observer. ”

“ Indeed the tendency is to judge of a Ministry by the Secretary of State for India. If he is popular and respected, the Ministry is thought much of; but if he is disliked, its speedy downfall is longed for. Great will be the exultation when Lord Palmerston's Government falls, for a more unpopular minister than the present Secretary of State for India never held a portfolio. ”

“ Some such idea as this, though never perhaps expressed in so many words, have numbers of people at home formed of the mode of live of their countrymen whose lot it is to pass their lives in India. Let us in the interests of truth and reality describe a subaltern's bungalow as it really is, and let those whom our picture offends by its pre-Raphaelite ugliness, reconcile themselves to it by the reflection that it is faithful as a general typical representation. ”

“ Love of gossip has ever been considered an essential characteristic of provincial society, and surely life in an up-country station in India is, Hiberuis ipsis Hibernior, still more devoid of topics of interest than the smallest village community in England, where every-day news is received from all parts of the world, and the newest books, pamphlets, and periodicals can be obtained almost as soon as published. It must not be supposed, however, that conversation is invariably of this trivial nature. Most men in India are well acquainted with the literature of the day, and many go much higher. ”

“ This common bond of interest naturally binds people together, and makes them more friendly than they would be otherwise. Every man’s social position is known, and he has only to “call” on arrival at a new place to be received at every house. Society-especially at a small station—is so free from the restraints of formality, that a stranger would be almost inclined to think all around him mutually related; and, we believe, it is a misunderstanding of this natural intimacy that has caused so much scandal and misrepresentation. Indian society is considered at home most lax, and even immoral. ”

“ The conduct of such writers is the more open to censure, inasmuch as the dissemination of slanders is but a poor return for the kind treatment they are sure to have received; for hospitality, like that practised at home in the good old days, is one of the most conspicuous virtues of the English in India.
On arrival at a place, if the traveller has a slight acquaintance with any resident, or bears a letter from a common friend, and often indeed without any such claim, he is sure of a warm reception. No matter how small the bungalow, or how limited his entertainer’s means, room is made for him. ”

“ Notwithstanding the number of years that had elapsed since India became, to use the common stilted phrase, the brightest jewel in the crown of England, and notwithstanding the astounding amount of oriental knowledge displayed at times by honourable members during debates, that country with its varied inhabitants is still, to all intents and purposes, a terra incognita to the majority of Englishmen. ”

“ It is true, the heinous crime of talking of “niggers” is not unfrequently committed, but that Europeans in India do not systematically hate and ill-treat the natives is proved by the conduct of those officers who, during the mutiny, in spite of warning and even evidence, refused to believe in the treachery of their men, and fell victims to their trust,” and to this may be added the testimony of many high in power, who enjoy opportunities of forming a judgment on the subject, not possessed by those flippant tourists who are so anxious to prove the rule by the exception. ”

“ There is very little of that cold formalism for which Englishmen are proverbial in India. Men are thrown together more, and when one meets another hundreds of miles, perhaps, from any place inhabited by Europeans, he is only too glad of a companion, to be restrained from intercourse by the consideration that there has been no introduction. ”

“ None but those who have experienced it can tell what delight a description of Nature in her most charming aspect, as beheld in some country parts at home, gives to those who never see her but in extremes, either endued with a brilliant gorgeousness that palls from its very splendour, or presenting a dreary monotony that inevitably saddens a mind at all susceptive of her influence. ”

“ The constitutional, skinny Frenchman, attenuated to the last degree by his diet of soup maigre and frogs, but still full of dancing jerking life, and compounded of shrugs and grimaces, has almost deserted the stage, but the conventional yellow nabob, with "half a heart, and little more than half a liver," is still typical to no small portion of our countrymen of their brothers and cousins in India Occasionally we are pourtrayed in darker colours, as when a popular play-writer represents systematic seduction and wide-spread immorality as the main features of Anglo-Indian society. ”

“ Too often the answer is that given by the learned world to George Primrose's paradoxes—just nothing, and we find that what has been exciting us, and filling our minds for months, is scarcely considered worthy of a cursory notice in a corner of the "Jupiter." But we do not protest on the misapprehension and indifference that prevails on the subject of India, for sentimental reasons alone, though they are, we think, sufficiently cogent, but we take our stand on other grounds also. ”

“ Even the natives on this point agree cordially with the Europeans.
A notice of the character of the English in India would be incomplete without some reference to their relations with the natives, with regard to which there has been an immense amount of misrepresentation. As a rule, Anglo-Indians (we speak more particularly of those in the service of Government) are kind to their servants and to those natives with whom they are thrown into contact. Intimacy there cannot be: the difference of race, colour, religion, character, and last, not least, the omnipresent system of caste forbid that. ”

“ We see men continually indulging in gross debauchery of the vilest kind, ill-treating women, and yet crying like children themselves for the least hurt, cringing to and fawning upon their immediate superiors, but insolent to all others, and utterly regardless of the claims of honour, truth, and gratitude, and we cannot be surprised that those who hold such weaknesses and such vices in peculiar contempt and abhorrence, should allow their sentiments to be seen in their conduct. ”

“ Civilians their cutcherry, and military men parades, regimental work, courts martial, and committees (and in this last word is comprised a large amount of heterogeneous labour) ; the Indian papers rarely contain any news of much interest; and. to crown all, from constant interchange of ideas, each knows the other's opinion on almost every subject. It is simply human nature, as Sam Slick would say, that under such circumstances men should seek to render conversation interesting and exciting by a slight admixture of scandal. ”

“ It is painful to think of the lives such men led, devoid of hope, without any ambition that would lead them to aim at higher things, and who were finally laid in an obscure grave by men of the same stamp, or else by natives whose religion they had adopted. ”

“ There is no fear, as at home, that the casual acquaintance, with whom you have struck up an intimacy, may turn out a travelling tailor or bootmaker, for, at a distance from the Presidency, one rarely meets with any but members of the different branches of the Government service. ”

“ We by no means, however, mean to assert that all natives are as described above, but it is a melancholy truth that no small portion of those who come most into contact with Europeans are thus, more or less, morally disfigured; and it is but natural that the gulf, before existing, should be widened by the mutiny and its attendant horrors. ”

“ Those at home see the defects as well as the beauties of those scenes we recall so fondly; we have no such drawbacks, for memory tinged by imagination leaves in the background all that would detract from, and brings into strong relief all that enhances, our enjoyment. ”

“ Continually thrown into contact, as all the denizens of the place are, they get to know each other intimately, and the foibles of each are known and discussed. It is impossible to deny that an extreme love of gossip and scandal prevails, and is by no means confined to the weaker sex. Each station has its “Scandal Point,” where almost every one assembles on those evenings when there is no band. At such meetings even grave elderly gentlemen are not ashamed to indulge in the veriest tittle-tattle ”

“ It is not our part to discuss the best mode of obviating the failures that take place and overcoming the difficulties that arise. We have pointed out the disease, the remedy is in the hands of every one. ”

“ Men in those days, on leaving the shores of Britain, severed all the ties that bound them to their country, and made up their minds to live and die in that land in which their lot was cast. When it took upwards of a year to get an answer from one’s friends, none cared much to write. ”

“ We acknowledge candidly that the manner of Europeans towards their dusky fellow-subjects is often not very conciliatory; but we can hardly wonder at it when we see so many natives displaying the very vices and failings that are calculated to excite the disgust of an Englishman. ”

“ Shut out from communication with the outer world, except when the anxiously expected mails bring a budget of English news and letters from home, the inhabitants of a distant up-country station have really very few topics to talk about, if they avoid personalities. In the daytime all have work of various kinds. ”

“ Perseverance is however rewarded at length, and a very sleepy looking servant comes up with his turban all awry, and brings what is required, on which his master returns to his former occupation with unruffled composure. ”

“ Even where Europeans make advances, the natives for the most part draw back, partly from innate dislike, and partly perhaps from a vague suspicion, which is widely spread, that we wish to destroy their caste by underhand means. ”

“ As all the domestics are fast asleep in small huts at some distance from the bungalow, with doors and windows tight shut, this is a task of no little difficulty, and cannot be accomplished without a considerable expenditure of breath. ”

“ At messes and elsewhere it is no uncommon thing to hear discussions on literary and scientific questions, in which considerable knowledge of the subject discussed, and much general information, are displayed. ”

“ Add to this the fact, that it is impossible for an ordinary native to understand the motives and springs of action of an English gentleman, and it will be seen how impossible it is for the two to be on intimate friendly relations. ”

“ In such a conversation every one almost joins in the interest, for there are few who do not read more or less. The history of the country too, and the customs of the natives, attract no little attention, and the old Company's officer is characterised by a profound acquaintance with, and ardent desire to learn more of, these subjects. ”

“ We are simply storing a fact to illustrate our position. ↑ A few years ago this rule was without exception, almost. Now the various railways have brought a number of engineers and others into the country, who turn up everywhere. ”