Glimpses of India

Book excerpt: This selected annotated listing of 580 published personal writings of Englishmen involved in India from 1583 is intended to round out the scattered bibliographical compilations on the history of British India. Included are memoirs and autobiographies, collections of personal letters, diaries and journals, and travel narratives. The term British India is used in a broad historical sense to include Afghanistan, Nepal, Tibet, and Burma during the relevant periods of British influence. With a few exceptions, the volume excludes official minutes, reports, and correspondence. Although each work provides a unique account of the British experience, a number of broad trends emerge. One of the most striking is the initial experience of parting from family and homeland and embarking on what was, before 1830, a five to seven-month sail around the Cape of Good Hope. Travel within India, on the other hand, was a high point of the British experience and thus provides the subject for much of the writings. Other topics include the violence of the British-Indian conflict, and the constant danger of death from disease, accidents, or other mishaps. Light is also cast on the role of the Western missionaries, who were active in education, translating Indian languages, and writing dictionaries. Although they effected little change in such practices as infanticide, the missionaries did reinforce the prevalent British view of the Indians as savages. The bibliography is divided by time period, beginning with the British entry into India in 1583, the rise and consolidation of British India, and the Indian mutiny (1857-1858). The subsequent sections list and annotate writings of Imperial India, the period of reform and reaction that followed (1905-1920), and India's move toward independence. It will serve as an important reference for historians of the period, and will be a useful addition to college and university libraries.