Doolally Sahib and the Black Zamindar: Racism and Revenge in the British Raj by M J Akbar

Author:M J Akbar [Akbar, M J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Political Science, Comparative Politics
ISBN: 9789354355288
Google: eH9aEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B09QYGVR4K
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2022-02-03T18:30:00+00:00

The Phal-Phool Rule

The British Crown ruled India through a covenanted service, whose members had to pass a rigorous examination. The days of grace-and-favour appointments ended after 1857. Old-timers called this new breed the ‘Competitionwallahs’. You could get away with a good deal as members of the Indian Civil Service, also known as the ‘Heaven-born’ Brahmins of the Raj. The one unpardonable sin was graft.

The ICS had its share of characters. The first modern market in Bombay, which opened in 1871, was named after the municipal commissioner Arthur Travers Crawford. Crawford had separated from his wife, and lived with two American actresses during one season in Pune. None of this harmed his career. But he was placed under house arrest when found accepting bribes. He escaped from Pune, was caught in Bombay wearing a false beard and dismissed without a pension.⁴⁰

In 1888, the political agent in the princely state of Bhavnagar, Colonel Watson, was accused by an Indian journalist of receiving gifts, including horses, from the maharaja through his mistress, a Mrs Mills, then staying as a guest of the prince. The colonel responded with some hauteur, saying that his superiors had no business prying into his bedroom. It did not work. The Bombay government ordered him to return the horses and ‘get rid’ of Mrs Mills.⁴¹

The ICS took pride in its reputation for correct behaviour. Any officer who hit an Indian faced a severe reprimand or even dismissal, and momentary loss of temper could become a blot on the record. Sobriety was encouraged. William Gladstone, prime minister four times between 1868 and 1894, believed that one whisky and soda a day was enough for a bureaucrat in India, although he served his own guests claret for breakfast. The officer was generally abstemious, even in the solitude and insomnia of a distant posting. The intemperate paid a price. Thomas Fry, a sessions judge of Pune who was often drunk in court was demoted and shifted to Satara.⁴²

A phal-phool (fruit-flower) rule became the new norm; officials could accept gifts of only fruit or flowers placed on trays known as dollies, which came around at Christmas. One army officer, John Morris (a member of two Everest expeditions, in 1922 and 1936) got a cauliflower on Christmas day from the contractor who supplied food to the troops. It was a very special cauliflower, since a gold sovereign popped out of it. Morris did the honourable thing: he kept the vegetable and returned the gold. According to Charles Allen, one resident in a princely state discovered 101 gold mohurs at the bottom of a huge dolly. The unnamed civil servant wrote an angry letter to the unnamed prince, only to receive a reply saying: ‘I’m dreadfully sorry, but one hundred and one gold mohurs is what has been presented to the residency every year at Christmas and if the amount is not enough will you tell me what it is?’ Five of the 101 coins were meant for the servants; the rest were for staff. The brown Christmas envelope was part of normal life in departments like the railways.

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