Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LETTER OF INTRODUCTION
- LETTER I THE TWO SYSTEMS
- LETTER II AN INDIAN RAILWAY
- LETTER III A GOVERNMENT SCHOOL AND AN OPIUM FACTORY
- LETTER IV A STORY OF THE GREAT MUTINY
- LETTER V A JOURNEY, A GRAND TUMASHA, AND THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CIVIL SERVICE CAREER
- LETTER VI A TIGER-PARTY IN NEPAUL
- LETTER VII ABOUT CALCUTTA AND ITS CLIMATE; WITH SERIOUS INFERENCES
- LETTER VIII ABOUT THE HINDOO CHARACTER; WITH DIGRESSIONS HOME
- LETTER IX BRITISH TEMPER TOWARDS INDIA, BEFORE, DURING, AND SINCE THE MUTINY
- LETTER X THE “ANGLO-SAXON” PARTY IN INDIA
- LETTER XI CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA
- LETTER XII EDUCATION IN INDIA SINCE 1835 ; WITH A MINUTE OF LORD MACAULAY
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- LETTER OF INTRODUCTION
- LETTER I THE TWO SYSTEMS
- LETTER II AN INDIAN RAILWAY
- LETTER III A GOVERNMENT SCHOOL AND AN OPIUM FACTORY
- LETTER IV A STORY OF THE GREAT MUTINY
- LETTER V A JOURNEY, A GRAND TUMASHA, AND THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CIVIL SERVICE CAREER
- LETTER VI A TIGER-PARTY IN NEPAUL
- LETTER VII ABOUT CALCUTTA AND ITS CLIMATE; WITH SERIOUS INFERENCES
- LETTER VIII ABOUT THE HINDOO CHARACTER; WITH DIGRESSIONS HOME
- LETTER IX BRITISH TEMPER TOWARDS INDIA, BEFORE, DURING, AND SINCE THE MUTINY
- LETTER X THE “ANGLO-SAXON” PARTY IN INDIA
- LETTER XI CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA
- LETTER XII EDUCATION IN INDIA SINCE 1835 ; WITH A MINUTE OF LORD MACAULAY
Summary
Those who read these letters with attention cannot fail to perceive that my most earnest desire and most cherished ambition is to induce Englishmen at home to take a lively and effective interest in the native population of their Eastern dominions; and with that view to lay before them a plain statement of the feeling which is entertained towards that population by the European settlers in India. This is a task which cannot be undertaken by an anonymous writer. On a matter so momentous evidence will not be received from a witness whose character and antecedents are unknown. On all the great questions which now agitate Anglo-Indian society the civilians and the settlers are at odds: so that men naturally reject the testimony of an author whom the larger half of his readers and reviewers believe to be a civilian. The admiration expressed in the fourth letter for the gallantry of Macdonell and Mangles, and the recital of the advantages of a public career in India contained in the fifth, were successively attributed to the predilection of the author for his own Service. This was of little consequence: but not so with the ninth letter, which exposes at length the horrible tone adopted by a certain class of Anglo-Indians regarding the murder of natives by Europeans. This exposition consists almost entirely of extracts from the Anglo-Indian journals themselves: and yet it was styled “a burst of civilian hatred against the Independent Settler” by no less a journal than the Spectator, which had noticed the previous letters most favourably and courteously.
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- Information
- The Competition Wallah , pp. v - xPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1864