Book conversations: Beyond the Call of Duty

We usually look back at the British Raj with derision - for very good reasons.  However here is a book that shows the opposite: a look at the few notable exceptions to the usual horrid British agents, who went beyond their call of duty to work for the upliftment of the 'natives', as in us.

We usually only remember the Clives and the Simons, as their exploits are recounted in our history books, but this book comes up with a list of some well known and some less known names of British civil and/or military establishment.  They worked - sometimes willingly, sometimes more indirectly - to make a difference to the society they were part of at the time.

So the book recounts the following names and their field of achievement in the period of the Raj:

• William Jones: Asiatic Society
• W H Sleeman: fighting the thug system
• Mountstuart Elphinstone: education
• James Prinsep: Indian history/geography & numismatics
• Arthur Thomas Cotton: building dams
• R M Stephenson & John Chapman: railways
• The Cunningham brothers: archeology, Sikh history & advocacy of Mysore royalty
• Ronald Ross: malaria research
• Mark Tully: journalism

Of these, Prinsep's story is astounding due to the sheer number of useful pursuits he undertook during his brief lifetime; Ross' painstaking research on the cause of malaria is awe-inspiring and gets the maximum coverage in the book; while Tully's is the only contemporary British example of any significant contribution to the Indian cause.  

Raghunathan and Prasad relate the accounts of these gentlemen in an engaging manner, and their belief in the justness and magnanimity of their actions is evident throughout the book.  

It is interesting to note that it was the Madras royalty of those days that conspired against the King of Mysore, which resulted in the annexation of the Mysore throne by the British.  

I guess the inter-state rivalry between these two states predated the Kaveri issue!  

Personally I would have liked to find out in depth about Francis Cunningham's role in the King of Mysore getting back his right to adopt a heir to the throne.

Nevertheless this is a noteworthy contribution, and should be taken into account by those looking to rename our towns, roads, circles and parks, so that deserving names such as those above are not erased in error.

The rest of the names, if at all retained, should be kept only to remind us of the grave error we committed in letting someone else occupy the country and loot it, so that this never happens again. 

Another bonus is the watered-down but easy-to-understand-and-remember account of the establishment of colonial rule in India in the introduction to the book.



Image source: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BN7rZtXGL._SX311_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg