Village Life
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Introduction
The 1940s saw a large influx of new
population into Calcutta. Many were from villages which they had left for work
in the city or because they had had to flee. The rapid growth of the city also
swallowed up a lot of villages in the vicinity.
So even in a large city like Calcutta for many the village lifestyle was
not far from their minds.
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Village Life
_____Pictures
of 1940s Calcutta________________________
Clothes washing
In case there's any doubt in our mind as to your dhobie's intentions with your best shirt, the expression on the face of the fiendish laundry-wallah battering the garment in this picture should remove it.
In closing this album of Calcutta, the writer feels justified in observing that the reasons for the dhobie's methods remain, in spite of much research, among the greater mysteries of India.
Clyde
Waddell, US military man, personal press photographer of Lord Louis
Mountbatten, and news photographer on Phoenix magazine. Calcutta, mid 1940s
(source: webpage
http://oldsite.library.upenn.edu/etext/sasia/calcutta1947/? Monday, 16-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of David N. Nelson,
South Asia Bibliographer, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania)
Cow dung patties
"Patty-cake Annie" is the nickname tagged to the makers of India's most plentiful fuel by American Soldiers who must indulge their sense of humor. The sun-baked cow-dung patties are used by the poorer classes who cannot afford scarce wood for fuel to heat their homes and cook their food.
Clyde
Waddell, US military man, personal press photographer of Lord Louis
Mountbatten, and news photographer on Phoenix magazine. Calcutta, mid 1940s
(source: webpage
http://oldsite.library.upenn.edu/etext/sasia/calcutta1947/? Monday, 16-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of David N. Nelson,
South Asia Bibliographer, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania)
_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s
Calcutta___
A letter sent by Richard to Reva for the benefit of her fourth grade students:
April 4, 1945
INDIA
Dear Boys and Girls:
It has been my pleasure to hear some fine things about the boys and girls of Mrs. Beard's fourth grade class. As she may have told you, I once lived near Mt. Blanchard, attended the M.P. Church, and often walked along the village streets. She has probably said that I am a teacher, also, and that I like to work with boys and girls, who usually teach me something new every day.
But how would you like to live in a land where most of the children do not have to go to school at all? On our way to headquarters in the morning, this is what we see: boys and girls and men of all ages down at the edges of the numerous rice paddy ponds that dot the landscape, washing their hands, faces and feet in the muddy water. They brush their teeth and gums by rubbing them vigorously with fingers soaked in the water. The men keep their breech clothes around them, but take off their shirts, which look just like the kitchen table cloth back home. The little kids are often completely naked, with only a charm suspended from a string that is tied around their tiny waists. They are quite black, with well formed bodies and attractive faces. Most of the people in this community are Mohammedans, though there are a few Hindus.
The ponds, which are about the size of a small quarry, are used for drinking water, for bathing, for cooking water and for laundry. If you wander through the countryside, you can see housewives (you must be very careful not to go too near, or they run and hide) busy washing clothes. They accomplish this by wading into the water, hitching up their skirts, dumping the clothes in the water, hitching up their skirts, dumping the clothes in the water, and then beating the life out of them against a log. The clothes are spread on the ground to dry, but tattle-tale gray whispers to all the world that dirty water and no soap won't clean.
The natives live in small clusters of bamboo huts, called bashas, built around a pond. There are various kinds of palms, banana trees, and shrubs for shade. Only the men work in the rice paddies and the women must stay at home. The kiddies dig grass for the undersized cows, whose ribs are always showing. Other children fish for minnows, stirring up the water until they come to the top. These little fish are dried and made into a kind of breakfast food. Everyone is barefooted and they usually walk to market, though occasionally they ride in diminutive ox carts which creak loudly.
More will have to wait until next time. Please study hard for your own sakes, and give a big smile to my favorite teacher, Mrs. Beard.
Have a nice vacation!
Richard L. Beard
Sgt., Air Corps [Editor's note: This was written before R.L. Beard was promoted to Lt.]
Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta, April 4, 1945
(Source: page 138 of Elaine Pinkerton (ed.): “From Calcutta With Love: The World War II Letters of Richard and Reva Beard” Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2002 / Reproduced by courtesy of Texas Tech University Press)
Indian Women
Indian Women. Indians are great family men. But their wives are kept much more secluded than western women. In certain circles it is a breach of good manners to inquire of a man about his wife or to mention women in any respect in conversation. A married woman wears a red spot in the center of the forehead. Many wear a small jewel in the side of the nose purely as an ornament as American women wear earrings. The jewel has no religious or caste significance.
Indian women keep to their homes as much as possible. Most Moslem and many Hindu women take particular care not to show their faces before strangers and wear heavy veils when out of doors. In the villages and rural sections where women are working out of doors, you should exercise special care not to stare at them or address them. Many will run at the approach of a white man.
(source: “A Pocket Guide to India” Special Service Division, Army Service Forces, United States Army. War and Navy Departments Washington D.C [early 1940s]: at: http://cbi-theater-2.home.comcast.net/booklet/guide-to-india.html)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)
_____Memories of 1940s
Calcutta_______________________
I was fascinated by the mud brick making
Barrackpore itself hadn't much in the way of sightseeing, being a smallish community and the native village was much like any other in Bengal. I was fascinated by the mud brick making along side the river and enjoyed watching them making and firing the bricks which were mostly used for local structures.
Harry Tweedale,
RAF Signals Section, Barrackpore, 1943
(source: A6665457 TWEEDALE's WAR Part 11 Pages 85-92 at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)
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Farming And Gardening
_____Pictures
of 1940s Calcutta________________________
_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s
Calcutta___
agriculture
More than 73 percent of India's population is dependent on agriculture. The total gross cropped area sown annually is roughly 245 million acres. India supplies huge quantities of agricultural products to foreign countries. India produces jute as a monopoly and shares 50 percent of the world's production of oilseeds, 25 percent of cotton and 60 percent of tea.
The chief crops of India are: rice, wheat, sugarcane, tea, cotton, jute, linseed, groundnut, coffee and rubber. India is the world's second largest producer of cotton, the first being the United States, and is responsible for more than one-third of the entire world products of rice. India is the largest supplier of tea to the United States. India also has valuable timber tracts, including forests of teak and deodar. She also grows many spices, and it was these spices that Columbus was searching for when he discovered America.
(source: “A Guide Book to Calcutta, Agra, Delhi, Karachi and Bombay” The American Red Cross and the China-Burma-India-Command. [1943]: at: http://cbi-theater-2.home.comcast.net/redcross/red-cross-india.html#INDIA)
(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)
_____Memories of 1940s
Calcutta_______________________
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By the Pond
_____Pictures
of 1940s Calcutta________________________
_____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s
Calcutta___
Fishing in the Dhakuria Lakes
We did take some time out at noon to watch the Indians who were fishing, using nets and bamboo traps, in the pond adjacent to our headquarters. The water is low enough that they can wade through all of it, and word got around that one had caught a fish 15 inches long. In a few moments, 56 (by actual count) Indians, little and big, were there.
Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta, January 1, 1945.
(Source: p.115 of Elaine Pinkerton (ed.): “From Calcutta With Love: The World War II Letters of Richard and Reva Beard” Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2002 / Reproduced by courtesy of Texas Tech University Press)
_____Memories of 1940s
Calcutta_______________________
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