ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME: Kate Garrod/ Margery Hall, William Odling

COLLECTION: 4700.0576

IDENTIFICATION: Britons in India

INTERVIEWER: Frank De Caro, Rosan Jordan

PROJECT: British Voices in South Asia

DATES: 2/1/78, 2/22/78 FOCUS DATES: 1930s

Tape 839, Side A

lovely houses, conditions in Sunnam(?); Indians have different ways of doing things; encountering dead rats, dogs, cats; spoons were the most popular items for thieves; husband trains overseas students in administration; she and her husband were the only Europeans in Bhatgar(?), in Lahore state; quality of servants in Bhatgar, brought them along from Poona; servants wary of earthquake; Poona is an emancipated place where you can play golf and tennis;

being the only woman at Indian chief=s entertainments at Bhatgar; Indians feeding her tidbits with chopsticks after the chopsticks had been in their mouths; being invited to lunch, kept waiting for hours to eat, drank lots of soda water to fight cholera; food covered solid with flies; prevalence of smallpox and cholera, fear that children would catch these diseases; had three young children; quarantined during cholera, precautions; hasn=t been in India since 1947; works for welfare of mentally ill in Britain; her excellent long term memory; much of India was a terrible experience; her manuscript about India; Mary Thatcher, woman in charge of the Indian history archives in Cambridge; people who went to India but escaped all the horrors; British people who claim India as their spiritual home; encountering other British people who spent time in India; fancy clothes the men wore for special occasions; difficulty of getting clothes or fabric in India; splendor of visiting the viceroy=s house; high cost of clothes; refused to curtsey to anyone, including viceroy; meeting viceroy; India felt magical; decision to go to India on holiday; she was an absolute nobody in India; having to enter or exit door last because she had no rank; had to use lavatory last; whole pattern of Indian life built on rank and protocol; American girl who broke rank at a party and used toilet before senior ladies; writing critical letters to the authorities; relatives who served in Indian Army; her work for people with mental illness; interview with Major Odling begins; little change in India until 1939, advent of Suez Canal; traveling through Suez Canal; canal made tremendous increase in speed of cargo; Indian army; two battalions of Indians paired with one British battalion; gunners were all British; Odling was a gunner, commissioned in 1929; getting posted to India; went to historical part of India, Uttar Prashad; paraded at five AM before it got too hot; many soldiers preferred to parade when it was hot and sleep when it was cooler; Indian climates, dampness; monsoons, urge to run outside naked in rain; effects of dampness: mushrooms in shoes, couldn=t light a match.

water carrier fetched water from well, cleaned Athunderboxes@ (toilets); bathtubs in India; snakes getting in bathroom; killing snake with golf club versus killing snake with walking stick; cobras and kraits; trying to kill snake in carport; boots as protection from snakes; heard stories about lethargic snakes who bite second man walking on trail, not first; description of Indian bungalow, huge staff employed by each officer; night watchmen supposedly in league with thieves; advantage of riding camels over horses; initial problems with his camel; beautiful gardens; water supply in compound; had electric lights and fans in every room; slept under mosquito net; afternoon naps; tea, meals; servants in mess hall; going out in field, camping, bringing servants; generally camped near water supply; recent visit to Pakistan; DeCaro=s longtime interest in India; funding of their oral history project; plans for deposit of tapes; description of classes interviewers teach; very few British women in India early on; Skinner family in India; Odling talks about driving from Miami to New York; British clubs in India, tennis, golf and squash; clubs provided activities for wives; clubs were controversial because Indians not allowed to join; some Indian civil servants were senior to some British; Weddington Club was not segregated; clubs in very small stations were integrated; Odling=s opinions on segregated clubs; problems related to Indian women not being allowed to socialize freely; club was center of social life for British, other social place was mess hall; tall tales about sporting prowess, hunting tigers.