Philip Mason the author of this book, himself have worked in India during the reign of British. The book describes more on how British Revenue system still intact was built stone by stone. The author has a typical view of white mans burden and tries to show off as unbiased wherever it’s possible by saying that many British statesmen wanted the Indians to take part more in administration. But more so ever, he didn’t hesitate to take a blow on the Indians.
But his description of the poligars (Palayakarars) was almost accurate, they did not maintain any books for revenue collection, instead just threatened the poor cultivator to squeeze money either in form of taxes or loot. Many ordinary Indians didn’t join the side of the poligars(Palayakarars) during the struggle against the British because they had no feeling of kinship with their rulers, even the so much famed Kattabomman was considered to be plunderer and made people to pay exorbitant taxes. Writer Poomani in his Sahithya academy winning Novel Angyaadi, would have depicted the mind set of ordinary people in the reign of Kattabommu Nayakar. This era was the birth of a famous proverb “ Raman aandaalum Ravanan aandaalum enakoru kavala illa”
The book also depicts how the functions of a collector evolved and the lives of the administrators then, we see lot of those reminiscences even today, I have long thought why they say collector is in a camp or thasildar is in a camp or even Chief ministers camp house. The early days of British officers were mostly in camps trying to build the revenue and legal systems in the India, which was In shambles. And our collectors still continue Camp, without a need for that word anymore.
A lot of jargons and activities still being done the same way as it was back in the 1700s in Major government departments like Revenue, PWD, Irrigation, Police.
The book start with chapters about the first English men’s journals and then their small beginnings. Then describes how battle of plassey made the English rise to power. It has more chapters for the 1857 war of independence, quenching and after math. He praises sky high all the able administrators not even winks an eye about the corruptions,infact he turns a blind eye to the corruptions of Britishers like Elihu Yale, Robert Clive and how they started an empire of corruption and how systematically the Indians were robbed and how they made corruption as a way of life for the people who worked under them, which continues until today.
He has high regards for the British officers who won the 1857 war of independence, while he considers the rebels as mere plunderers and murderers. Also he proudly proclaims that Munro has successfully launched war campaigns against poligars using just his Peons instead of fully trained soldiers, in way he says the Most Indian Chieftain’s army were weak. Though I won’t agree 100% with his views, it’s true to an extent that the Poligars had hardly any soldiers on payroll, they are fiefdoms so they are not trained soldiers instead mercenaries for hire
He mentioned how the British officers felt satisfactory after accomplishing a canal project or a irrigation project citing the Buckingham Canal Project. He never mentioned how the Duke of Buckingham was made Governor of Madras just to recover himself from his debt. The buckingham canal was a largest corruption undertaken to fill the coffers of Duke of Buckingham and there is no mention of it.
One good thing in the book is that, it depicts why the English were successful while the Indians failed miserably, the early Britishers were keen in understanding the culture and civilization of India and they document a hell lot of facts which still in 2018 serves as guidelines for the government(I heard from my father in law that “The Castes and Tribes of Southern India - By Edgar Thurston” an 18th century work seems to be still referred as a stable reference work in Backward and Scheduled classes welfare departments to make major decisions on reservations) Their way of documenting and cataloging helped them to identify the bottlenecks and problems and smooth their way through. The Indians on the other hand never put their effort to understand anything in detail(which is still the very mark of an Indian). They lagged behind in many things. Neither they pursue the Indian ancient effective ways of reign which Inturn caused their decline.
Even with the explicit white man burden complex shadowing over each chapter of the book, this still is a wonderful work that gives a glimpse of the British India and its effects on today’s India and Indians
