Very plain tales from the Raj

The problem with reading two books on the same topic at the same time is that one must be declared the loser""the lesser of the two rivals vying for the reader's attention. I happened to pick up The Lion and the Tiger when I was about to finish Lawrence James' Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India, a 722-page blow by blow account of the Raj. James' book has more to chew and cud than Dennis Judd's.

Judd starts with the setting up of the East India Company in 1600 and ends with Indian Independence in 1947. Almost 350 years of history is wrapped up in less than 250 pages. As a result, he just manages to skim the surface. The book is at best an introductory guide to the Raj. Not for somebody seeking new insights into British rule over India.

Often, Judd's account of things turns out to be too simplistic. The conquests of the East India Company right through the 18th century were accompanied by large-scale corruption by the company officials. While Judd admits this fact, he doesn't say how deep the rot ran. How company officials armtwisted local rulers to get personal trade concessions is a story in itself""the inhuman face of the Raj.

Judd's treatment of the 1857 mutiny too is simplistic. It was caused by a combination of factors, the greased cartridges only providing the flash point. Was Mangal Pandey, the sepoy who raised the banner of revolt at Barrackpore, under the influence of bhang when he attacked his white officers? Judd suggests this could be the case.

Yet, to attribute his actions to a round of bhang would be incorrect. There was widespread resentment amongst the sepoys, especially against racial attacks from their officers. More than anything else, the 1857 mutiny, as Christopher Hibbert has said in his landmark book on the subject, was the last attempt by the India of old to re-assert itself""a point missed by most historians, including Judd.

However, the final few chapters, detailing the Indian struggle for Independence, are engaging and full of information. And this is where the book comes alive. Small points, often glossed over by others, have been well brought out by Judd. For example, once the Muslim League arrived on the political horizon, the British government did everything it could to prop it up in order to weaken the Congress.

When the Muslim League started its own newspaper, The Dawn, the government placed an unusually large number of advertisements. Clearly, the idea was to place as much money as possible in the hands of the Muslim League. Though his book is short, Judd has found space to dwell upon the romantic dalliance between Edwina Mountbatten and Pandit Nehru.

Particularly interesting are excerpts from a letter that Lord Mountbatten wrote to his wife: "I am very glad that you realise that I know the very special relationship between Jawaharlal and You, made easier by my fondness and admiration for him, and by the remarkably lucky fact that among my many defects God did not add jealousy in any shape or form."

In the epilogue, Judd has raised the oft-repeated question, if the British Raj was good for India. But like all others he has declined to give an answer, saying that the issues are too complex to give a verdict.

In the last few years, there has been a renewed interest about the men who ruled India. In particular, two categories of men have caught the fancy of readers and writers alike: adventurers and mercenaries who put their services at the disposal at whoever could afford to pay (read Charles Allen's Soldier Sahibs, and John Lall's book on Begum Samru) and the Great Game specialists (Pter Hopkirk's The Great Game, Patrick French's book on Francis Younghusband).

Not even a handful of these characters make an appearance in Judd's book. People like James "Sikander Sahib" Skinner, John Nicholson, Younghusband are missing. Only Lord Roberts of Kandahar (Bobs Bahadur) is mentioned, that too just once!

William Dalrymple has brought to light another variety of Englishmen who came in India""the white Mughals. Though the tribe was wholly extinct by the time the Great Mutiny broke out in 1857, these people would dress up like Indians, follow Indian customs and invariably also take Indian wives.

Most of them even took Hindustani names. And unlike the vast majority of Britishers, they made India their home, choosing to live and die in the heat and dust of the country. Give us more books on such people. A simplistic history of the Raj is passe.

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The Lion and the Tiger

Dennis Judd
Oxford University Press
Price: Rs 345
Pages: 234