Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Yasmin Khan
Read between
May 25 - May 30, 2016
the exit velocity of the British,
lovely phrase
The war sharpened dichotomies between the wealthy elites and the vast number of the very poor, heightened social tensions and exacerbated differences of class, caste and religion. Many societies have used histories
social effects of war
The war flattened out the pretensions of empire, making ceremonial and ritual excesses look archaic, challenging old compacts between the King-Emperor and the landed elites. It mobilised women, workers and the urban middle classes in radical new ways. It heightened nationalism, both in
more social effects off war
‘Indianisation policy’ did not automatically translate into an inevitable trajectory towards Independence. On the
indianisation policy
His failure to consult and to make a concerted effort to join forces with Indian leaders at the very start of the war would have catastrophic consequences for years to come; within eight weeks, the new political settlement of 1937, which
linlithgow's poor judgment asnd stupidity created problems long after he went back to England
The princes knew from their experiences of the First World War that this was an opportunity to cement their loyalty to the British and to prop up the existing political order. Many of them also had close ties to the military, had been educated at Sandhurst or in British schools and felt a strong affinity with the cause. The Nepali regent, desperate to defend his country’s own sovereignty, surprised the Commanding Officers by his obsequiousness.
princes supported war
Even as global events became daily more critical, and dominated the headlines, the threat of actual warfare on Indian soil was still far-distant; there were too many pressing concerns within India’s own borders. Many Indian leaders had some sympathy for the
domestic issues more important than war
war as an opportunity for pushing nationalist goals. But there was also a sense of uncertainty about taking advantage
leverage
However, this sense of two worlds drifting apart, of two peoples less entwined than they had been in the past, runs through
india and England "drifting apart"
The vast, almost unfathomable expansion of the Indian Army was beginning. Joining up as a volunteer after the start of a war in Europe still involved a leap of faith, a step into the unknown. As propaganda regularly reminded
expansion of Indian army
However, again, the freedom to join the army voluntarily can be exaggerated. For many, there was no choice at all. After all,
voluntary enlistment actually often coerced
The men of the 4th and 5th Indian Infantry divisions would be celebrated across the empire, their victories announced
4th division north Africa
His background was very different to the sepoys from the
different to???
The War Fund, in the hands of local administrators, came to serve as an acid test of loyalty to the imperial state. Payments to the fund could also be used to secure small favours from officials and to untie red tape. The War
semi voluntary tax
There was pressure on local civil servants to generate funds and the amounts that they amassed were reported back to their superiors (along with the number of men recruited) in a pyramid of extraction. For Manzoor Alam Quraishi, a junior civil servant in United Provinces at the start of the war,
pyramid of extraction
But this money was not just extracted from the landed, but also raised by burdening poor peasants who were already struggling under inflation and the dazzling rises in the cost of
funding war fell on both rich and poor but much more heavilh on poor who alo suffered fyom effects of inflationi basic goods
considerable amount of testimony which might be interpreted as throwing doubt on the spontaneity of the contributions now being made’.9
amazing use of euphemism
Compounding the sense of frustration and uncertainty among British administrators was the plain fact that British rule had self-evidently not delivered on its promises: 90 per cent of the population of the country still faced dire and inescapable poverty. The vast majority of people lived in
British rule obviously a failure for 90 percent of Indians. msny new arrivals witb no stake in th past were horrified and interested in chanve
India’s poverty was endemic.
lived as subsistence farmers relying on their crops, subject to indenture and debt, victims of landlords and their henchmen, living precarious lives vulnerable to small changes in wage patterns, natural catastrophes or calamities. Caste discrimination,
Aruna, born into a Bengali Brahmo Samaj family, had begun life with the name Aruna Ganguly, and her father had run a
one of unheralded used to " fill in" the history .
they fell back on culturalist assumptions about the Hindu and the Muslim, or on stereotypes of Gandhian non-violence. India had simply not grasped anti-fascism with both hands, it was too often believed, because it was too backward, irrational or undeveloped, or its people were too uneducated, superstitious or unable to see the international picture. The very real problems of ruinous inflation or the very obvious subjugation of Indian political rights were not seen by many British onlookers as strong enough reasons for resistance.
they aren't enough like us
Richpal Ram was in the advance platoon of his company as they started their
another unheralded cog in the machine this time a veteran 4th division noncom
The government severely overestimated the Indian peasant’s ability to cut back, living as he or she often did on the margins of viable existence in the first place. As the Bhore Committee Report on public health in India had already
govt idea of famine ib bengal influenced by British policy of "making do" with a little less but rural indians already at point of stsrvstion before famine
Widespread famine, as was to strike in 1943, is, however, of a different order altogether. It leaves lasting imprints on the demography of a region by affecting marriages, births and deaths. It brutalises people, forcing stark choices
effects of famine
As the historian Janam Mukherjee has recently analysed, the disposal of corpses was becoming a pressing problem for the municipal authorities in Calcutta by this point, with councils
disposal of corpses
famine victims have often remained undifferentiated, pitied but lacking distinctive faces, personalities and desires. Certain voices always sound loudest in the archives and memoirs: journalists, bureaucrats and businessmen. But these
famine victims unknown to history
‘American racism fundamentally structured the experience of black soldiers in India’.7
racism black u.s. soldiers in india
Abbas struggled to articulate a way in which anti-imperialism and pro-war feelings could be maintained, and how these two positions might coexist in the changed climate. Massive social
anti-imperialist and pro-war feelings at the same time
symbolic of the uncertainty and unprecedented change that was taking place. Similarly, the failure of the state to trace or pass on information about Indian prisoners of war deeply unsettled their families and kin. Widespread corruption and the impression
Khan continually draws parallels between activities of individuals and the larger move toward independence. some like here are labored
nearly every civilian has done 6 years or even 8 without leave and most of us have worked at top pressure nearly the whole of that time … six years away from one’s family is a big
six years without leave for indian civi service
