Plain Tales From The Raj

By Charles Allen
Rahul Dagli
UC0913
The author Charles Allen was born in India, and his family
served under the British Raj. He is a writer and an oral
historian; several of his famous works are Tales from the Dark
Continent, tales of the South China Sea, the search for Shangri
La and Kipling sahib.
This book is an insight into the
period of India under British Raj, it gives a vivid description of
how the British living in India lived, felt, and their various
customs and behavior towards the natives was. It contains a
record of the British and their experience of India.
A lovely and compelling account of what India meant to the
British between 1900 to 1947- The Times.
The books tell us that the Indian
society was full of castes. The occupation of people was
according to their caste; lower caste people were only given
work of sweepers and of similar kind. The bearers were usually
Muslim. Higher caste Brahmins did the better work. The British
also followed this caste system. The British living in India had
lots and lots of servants from bearers to cooks, gardeners,
ayahs, maids, sweepers and so on. The servants in a British
household did all of the household work. The ayahs who took
care of the British children were more of mother to them; they
would take care of their prescribed children like there own and
were at their side from day to night while the memsahib was
out enjoying parties. The Indian society at that time had
untouchables (lower caste) they were neglected and the British
also followed this custom. The Brahmins also considered the
British sahibs to be untouchable. The Brahmins where the only
ones other than the British who were employed in the Indian
civil service as they were said to be heaven born. The Hindus
did not allow the non-caste Hindu to drink from the same well
as them.
The Indian for some reason considered
the whites to be a superior race to them and always showed
their respect even when not asked for, this lead to the British
considering the natives to be inferior. Due to this reason the

British gain political power over the country. All the higher
posts in police and the Indian civil service were given to the
British and Indians were not able to reach at such posts.
Internally the Indian society wasnt very untied, even form the
aspect of business, and they only worked among their own
circles. The Indian army and the British army were separate
and there was hardly any interaction between them. The
British used to make fun of the Indian customs and mock the
Indian for following rules made by the British.
Due to the British and the advent of
railway, the cities that were ports and a bigger station turned
into big cities and major business hub for both the British and
the Indian. Bigger station included Bombay and Calcutta. The
people in these cities had a pretty luxurious life, all the
services where available and also better goods better services
where available here, the army camps of these places where
also more cleaner and more developed compared to smaller
areas.
The club is one of the major
gathering places for the British. The club was a place for the
British to have social interaction between each other. There
were specific clubs for specific sports some were for dance
others just for get-togethers. Very few of the clubs allowed
Indian to be members, the Indian members had to be of very
high caste and position in the society to be a member of the
better clubs. The clubs in the bigger cities such as Bombay and
Calcutta had golf courses and swimming pools and ground to
play polo. Club membership was very exclusive, not everyone
could become a member of any cub they wanted they had to
have a better position in society to be a member at a better
club, this applied to the British too, army officers where not
allowed in the clubs such as the Bengal club. A club usually
contained a bar for the local people to come and have a drink
and interact with each other. These clubs in the up country was
less advanced and contained only a bar or just a lawn, but was
still a integral part of the British society.
The dwelling of the British included
dak Bungalow which a government bungalow, forest
bungalow, the British made these bungalows as similar as they
could to the ones in England and with interiors from England
shipped to India. In Bengal and Assam there were Chung
bungalows, which was on pillars to avoid the floods. The
bungalows in the larger station were larger and contained two
storeyed. The up country bungalow was usually a mud brick
bungalow with high cool rooms and a wide verandah. The dak

bungalow were situated at strategic points throughout the

country, they were used for officers to stay while they went on
inspection. The old forts were converted into inspection
bungalows as well. There were also servant quarters in which
the memsahib and sahib were not allowed.
Another part was the military
cantonments, which included the mess, where the soldiers
would live and eat and carry out there day to day activities.
The soldiers where restricted to the mess and not allowed to
move outside the cantonments. There were also barracks,
which were permanent houses for the soldiers. The worst is
considered to be Jhansi, which is one of the smaller
cantonments. There were also hill stations, which included
various halls, which had productions from the local people
during the summer when the British came to the hill stations.
There were special VIP boxes for the viceroy and also the
commissioners.
Most of the British that lived in India
didnt like interacting with the Indians. If the European were
new he would interact more with the people, but as soon as he
got accustomed to the place he would behave the same as the
other whites. The British interacted with most Indians who
were their servants; the British usually gave them only orders.
The British never trusted us with their milk and their food, the
memsahib would be present when the person milks the cow to
and sure there is nothing bad added to the milk. They drank
only boiled water and exercised a lot cause they thought they
would get ill if they didnt. Some British people found the
custom of Indians silly and mocked them. The other
interactions were at the mixed clubs, which where few in
number. At such club the British would act and behave
differently due to the presence of Indians, as we considered
them to be superior they tried to act and to behave
accordingly. They never let their guard down and relaxed if
there was an Indian with them, this was one of the reasons
why they secluded Indian from joining a club. If it was just
British they could act in a more informal fashion. Ayahs who
took care of the children was like a mother to the children, they
used to spend all day with her and the children wanted their
ayahs instead if their mother. A British officer who had just
shifted to India was shocked to see a Indian passerby say
salaam to him, the British asked why he said so, the Indian
said that it was a sign of showing respect. And that every
British or higher caste person was to be salaamed by him.

Once there was a dead bird in the garden, the bearer, the
sweeper the gardener refused to pick it up and told to call a
very lower caste Dalit to do it. The inspecting officers and the
recruiting people who went form village to village, found that
the Indian people showed great hospitality towards them. They
gave the officer whatever food they had or they gave them a
massage if food wasnt available. People who felt this
hospitality had a different opinion towards India. The British
had a precedence order, which was to be followed for various
formal occasions; it was a list of the importance of various men
according to their posts from ICS to Police service and army
where given a rank on the list. All the seating arrangements
were to be done according to this order of precedence.
The novel mentions that at the
railways station they sold two types of water Hindustani pani
and moselmani pani. This shows that they considered each
others water to be different. Such was the condition of India
full of castes and religious taboo.

All the soldiers and the British people

loved playing sport and was the best past time then, the
favorite was polo. There would be competitions kept in all
cantonments and also there was a Kadir cup held for polo. The
other sport that also involved horse riding was pig sticking, you
had to ride a horse and stick a shear in a boar charging
towards you. This was a dangerous sport has the boars were
fast and in order to catch them you had to ride faster and the
ground if has holes the horse can trip and it could cause the
spear to be embedded into the horse or the rider. Also if you
miss a charging boar it hits you or your horse with sharp teeth,
this made the sport more exciting.
During the summer season the rich
people moved to the hill stations to be free from the heat. For
those who stayed back it was a long sweaty summer where
they had to work. The British wife and children generally fled to
the hill stations in the summer to be away from the heat, the
viceroy and other important officer also moved to the hill
stations and carried out their work from their. This meant that
other offices also had to shifted for the summer. The daily
routines continue in the hill station, they also had similar
houses there, with the same Victorian furniture imported from
England. During this time there would be regular dinner parties
and dance parties which would keep them away from boredom.

The major hill stations were Shimla, Dalhousie, Mussorie, etc.

after the summer the monsoon came which brought temporary
relief of them as the rains used to flood the bungalows. There
were also the thousands of insects that came with the rains.
This lead to a lot a diseases in the rainy season and until mid
October the rains continued. After October the temperature
gave the British the relief they needed. The cold weather was
the season of sport and travel. They used to enjoy it. They had
an army and navy catalogue through which they order for
Christmas in October from England. The Christmas spirits were
always high even in this country.
The author Charles Allen is a writer
born in India to an Anglo Indian family, since the author had
strong connections to the British, as he studied there. And also
his family served the British for six generations. This according
to me lead to him thinking that the Indian did this to
themselves and lead to the British to rule over India, and their
rule had changer India for the better. In contrast to the other
thing son the book the last chapter says that the British were
nothing but moneylenders there to earn money form India by
exploiting the illiterate.
The author says that the British raj in
India had its indirect benefits it gave us a galvanic impulse and
belief in the need for progress. But the British raj also had its
toll it left India in a rut, divided and left India in hunger and
poverty.
This book according to me gives me a
deeper understanding of the British rule and the condition of
India the various thoughts of the British and their style of living
how they were poor in England but when they came to India
they could afford the lavish life with a big house full of
servants. For the British raj the jewel of India was the
availability of cheap labor, which lead to exploitation of life and
resources in India.