INTERVIEWEE NAME: Arthur Barlow

COLLECTION: 4700.0605

IDENTIFICATION: Britons in pre-Independence India

INTERVIEWER: Frank De Caro, Rosan Jordan

PROJECT: British Voices in South Asia

DATES: 7/5/78 FOCUS DATES: 1930s

ABSTRACT:

Tape 844 Side B

Arriving in India--people conjuring, diving off ship for pennies, and making dubious proposals; F.P. Baker, tropical clothes outfitter for the services; he still has five tropical suits, wore one a few days before interview; climate, covering your head in the heat; Americans going to the highest deck of the ship and stripping clothing, Indians and British would never do this because of negative health consequences; Voyage to India, met friends; first posting in Agra, one of the hottest places in India; six months in Moradabad, a school for cadets to receive revenue, language, and legal training; subsequently posted to Lucknow, in charge of subdivision called Manaihabad; A cadet was an official term once used by the East India Company that remained over time to refer to first-year military/administrative men; Punjab Province, favorite province because of climate and friends he met on ship; upon arrival, he got on a mail train to Grindlays Bank in Bombay where he got a prize; Agra was a large station with doctors, engineers, educators, and missionaries; although his subdivision was in the countryside he lived in the city of Lucknow, which was a larger station than Agra where he also had responsibilities at headquarters; Phillip Mason, author of autobiography, lived in the rural areas; Barlow was keen on foreign service; he was with the ICS from 1929-1933 and switched to Political Service in western India; he arrived in West India as an undersecretary; military on the frontier; lived in Rajkot in western India; traveled in central and western India; sent to inspect jail, but couldn't gain entrance becuase prisoner had key and was at a bazaar buying food; state rulers ceremony; part of his job was to inspect prisons, schools, colleges, canals, and bridges; people liked rulers as long as they were reasonable and sympathetic to the people; ICS looked after rulers and institutions; stereotypes of Maharajas as eccentric, but rather rulers came in various forms; he had many Indian friends, particularly in the services; leaving West India to live at a listening post in the Northwestern Frontier province in Chaghcharan; Chinese and Russians making journey on the frontier difficult; little preparation for this post; journey took six weeks;

traveling through the land of the Mirs; going over the Kalik Pass, past the borders of Afghanistan, and into the province where Chaghcharan was located; difficult crossing of the Hindukush, a notorious mountain range; the British-India Consulate in Chaghcharan;

Peter Flemming and General Kahn; the political situation was confusing; the local Chinese were troops that had been driven out of Manchuria by the Japanese and were consequently anti-British, as were the Soviets

TAPES: TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 45 minutes

# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 1.5 page index

OTHER MATERIALS: none

RESTRICTIONS: none

NOTE: This collection is also deposited with the Centre of South Asian Studies at University of Cambridge.