ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME: F. M. Innes, Gardiner COLLECTION: 4700.0578

IDENTIFICATION: Britons in pre-Independence India

INTERVIEWER: Frank De Caro, Rosan Jordan

PROJECT: British Voices in South Asia

DATES: 2/14/78 FOCUS DATES: 1930s

interview with FM Innes at London House; family ties to India; no better career open to a yong Englishman; British families who had generations of involvement in India; when Innes was at Oxford, FE Smith gave pep talk to get more Britons in India; shocked by the cynical attitude Smith took toward family connections, reduced it all to financial terms; splendid life, Innes didn=t go for the money; truly believed in British empire; Philip Woodruff=s book The Man Who Ruled India; early childhood in Madras; returned to England at age four, rarely saw parents; India was as Kipling described; meeting ICS men during his Oxford days; 21 years service in ICS; telegram telling him he=d been accepted into ICS; focus on social life in India, not politics; Sir Herbert Edwards, great Punjab character at time of Mutiny; pro-Independence Britons; skepticism that India could govern itself; influence of Gandhi; Innes went to India in 1926; father was member of viceroy=s council in Delhi, Innes introduced to top people; assigned to remote district, had no modern conveniences; hot weather in Northern India; cold weather season; career development, started as magistrate trying petty cases; rapid promotions; the Lawrences; became undersecretary to the Punjab government; settling a dispute over cost of land; transferred to different district in Punjab in 1932, as deputy commissioner; new district free of political complications, could do old-fashioned administration; the work was endless, his long hours were hard on his wife; touring district, meeting with people; other Europeans in district; many districts had Indian superintendents of police; Indians better at police than administrative work; learning the local language; club at his station, question of integration of club; religious problems of integrating clubs; club in Karachi started admitting Pakistanis in 1952; excuses for British exclusivity; Indian Army didn=t like educated Indians; people tried to enlist allegiance of Innes= Indian friends, because people thought they had influence; Brits got along best with peasants, who looked up to them; problems of Indian peasants, trouble with money lenders and landlords, police; ICS perceived as protectors of the poor; corruption and Aparty barty@; remarkable murder case involving political party rivalry; social life - polo, duck shooting, amateur theatricals, mess night; commissioner=s wife took part in duck shooting and polo, sometimes did good works; wife and family had to be sent into hills during hot season; social life for Aabandoned wives@ in hills; summer vacations to escape heat; housing in India; traveling from station to station.

prep schools for army careers; mathematics stressed; trying to get commission into royal engineers, instead got into royal artillery; went to India with artillery; transferred to engineering, more schooling; Indian Service of Engineers; had almost no involvement with military once he transferred to engineering; expectations of India; mother was in Britain, father killed in war; marriage, wife returned to India with him; met wife in Chatham; preparations for going to India: getting uniform, mess dress for evenings; cheaper to buy clothes in India, excellent tailors; helmets required; rules regarding sun helmets; first job was as gunner on ship called Field Marshall; description of ship, ship seized from Germans; civilians bound for India were also on board; problems of carrying civilians on troop ship; Port Said, where people often weren=t allowed ashore; near mutiny by civilians who weren=t allowed to go onshore; Prince of Wales visited India, rioting in Bombay, so Field Marshall was rerouted to Karachi; civilians didn=t want to board troop trains from Karachi to Bombay; organization of army in India, four corps; ethnic composition of different Indian corps; differences between ethnic groups in India; differences between religious factions; stationed in Bangalore; divisions within Indian army based on religion; Britons broke castes in army, banned separate Moslem and Hindu kitchens in Madras; spent two years in Burma, no castes at all, not much religion, women integrated into everyday life; South India more progressive, tolerant, than North India; on being a newcomer to India; different ranks C viceroy=s commission, king=s commission, etc.; engineering projects; promotion to assistant engineer, responsible for 70 miles of rail route; construction of a line linking new coal fields; Britons moved around a lot within India, changed jobs; moving house, acquiring furniture; railway people moved for free, their things loaded onto railroad cars; kept personal possessions to a minimum; lost everything he left in storage in Burma; keeping in touch with friends, meeting many new people; spent 3 2 years in Calcutta; staff at one of his railroad posts near Benares; railway junctions; Eurasians were backbone of India, worked for railways, police, post office, public works department; original Europeans married Indian girls; after war many Europeans stayed in India, became RR drivers; more and more, railroads became Eurasian enterprise; no difference between European and Indian railroad officers; Eurasians torn between Indian and European cultures after WWII, many had very European lifestyle; Europeans trying to decide if they should bring their brown wives home after WWII; railroad people were close knit community; social connections in Calcutta; the club was a great institution: tennis, dancing on weekends; joining club.