A Spider In The Eye by Mark Hayes

Author:Mark Hayes [Hayes, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781791832049
Publisher: saltholme publishing
Published: 2019-01-07T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THE ELEVENTH

The Jewel In The Crown

According to the guidebooks, ‘Company House in Calcutta is perhaps the greatest symbol of British rule over the subcontinent. A sight that puts pride in the heart of any true Englishman, and the fear of God in all who stand opposed to the Empire.’

‘God’, as such sentiments are intended to infer, is, of course, an Englishman. Upon seeing the three hundred foot triumphal arch that houses the cogwheels of British rule that is Company House, it is a ‘sentiment that you’re hard-pressed to counter’, as the guidebook put it. I found myself thinking much the same as I rushed towards it on the express line across the river Hooghly.

The arch, covered in bas-reliefs of Imperial pride, Union Jacks, lions and old Britannia herself resplendent, dominates the city, much as the Empire dominates India. The whole gargantuan edifice sits in the centre of Victoria Square, the flagstones of which are laid out to depict a map of the subcontinent itself.

The designers of the Square weren’t going for subtlety. But this was after all Imperial India’s heart. They no doubt considered that it did no harm to hammer home the message of just who was in charge, not that there could be doubt on that score. The Union Jack flew everywhere in the Indian capital. Rumour had it there were more statues to be found in the city of good old ‘far from a virgin’ Queen Vic than Vishnu. Though some wags have been known to argue it’s hard to tell the difference between them…

On seeing the great arch looming towards me, as the express flew across the viaduct, I was reminded of something Miss Wells had vouched safe to me only the day before when I mentioned my orders were to report to an office within the arch. “It couldn’t be more phallic if they shaped it as a damn phallus…” She wasn’t far from the mark.

It was amidst one of her more scathing commentaries, one she made while we enjoyed afternoon tea on the flight from Egypt. Delightful though I found Miss Wells’s company on the second leg of my journey to India, her opinions on British rule in India were much what one comes to expect from the beneficiaries of Imperial largess. Which is to say, she was of the opinion that India should rule itself, and the British should depart, as it were, in a vulgar fashion. Though her language was never less than ladylike.

For myself, however, I must admit to marvelling at the sight of it as I rode the train in from the airfield. The arch cast against the vista of the city as I passed over. The closer we came to it the more the symbols of India’s wealth were there to be seen. If India is, as so often claimed, the jewel in the Empire’s crown, then Calcutta is the centre of that jewel, and it sparkles. At its heart, it is a city of mansions built with Company money.

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