Community Relations

 

 

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Introduction

 

In such a diverse society as Calcutta, how did people of differing background interact? How were these interactions impacted but the strains put upon the city during the 1940s? 

Many books have been written outlining this subject as a whole but we wanted to show these issues with individual examples.

 

 

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Languages

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

PEOPLE IN CALCUTTA

You see a number of different types of Indians on the streets of the city, and curiosity stirs in you as to who they are and what they are. The war, with the changes that it always brings, brought some of these people to Calcutta; nevertheless, most of them were always here, persons from many parts of the country drawn here by Calcutta's importance as a port and business center. Let's take a look at several of the types most prominent to the newcomer's eye.

 

(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army Forces in India - Burma, 1945:  at: http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.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)

 

 

 

Bleeding Bangla

RECENT happenings in Dacca are all the more regrettable because, on the issue which gave rise to the demonstrations, Government and demonstrators seem to be of one mind. Both want Bengali to be recognized as a State language of Pakistan.

Possibly it was felt by the demonstrators that the Government was not standing up to the Centre in this matter as vigorously as it might; the Government perhaps considered that opponents of the Administration were seeking to make capital out of this feeling. But bloodshed in such circumstances seems not only deplorable but wholly unnecessary.

Who was immediately to blame may be left to be ascertained through the promised inquiry. It is, however, likely to be felt that, among more remote causes of the outbreak, Central lack of imagination is chief. It has long been known that very many people in East Bengal are dissatisfied with the proposal to make Urdu the national language of Pakistan, and have good reason to be. Comparison with the position assigned to Hindi in India is facile, but mistaken. Hindi was chosen, because, in one form or another, it is already most widely spoken of the Indian tongues. But in Pakistan Bengali is-incontestably the language of the majority, and while it seems fair that speakers of Bengali should be encouraged or (if thought advisable) made to learn Urdu (if Urdu speakers are .equally required to learn Bengali), it seems quite wrong that the tongue of the majority should he given an inferior place.

(source: The Statesman. Calcutta/Delhi, February 24, 1952)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with The Statesman)

 

more than 200 different languages

Of more than 200 different languages and dialects spoken in India, 24 account for more than 96 percent of her population. But only half-a-dozen are really important. Of these Bengali has the richest modern literature, while Hindustani is generally understood in most of India. Educated Indians, of course, know English.

 

(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)

 

 

GETTING ALONG WITH THE PEOPLE

If you are good-natured and patient in your dealings with Indians you won't have any trouble with them even if you find some of their ways hard to understand and even annoying at times. For instance, they feel it is only polite to tell you what you want to hear. Very often that politeness of theirs will get you much misinformation. If you ask: "Is this the right road to ----?", the Indian probably will say "Yes", even if it isn't. To be on the safe side ask: "Which road goes to our camp, etc?"

Almost anywhere you go in India, you will find people who speak at least some English. Although many languages are spoken, the most widespread is Hindustani. It will pay you to learn some common words and phrases of Hindustani, which you will find at the end of this book.

 

(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)

 

 

English Or... ? (by Nirad C. Chaudhuri)

EVERY Indian will be able to fill in the dotted space in the heading to compare his case with mine. I shall not disclose at this stage what now stands there for me, but until almost the other day it was Bengali.   I should add however that our problem is no longer bilingual. For the first time in Indian history the mother tongue of a particular group of Indians has the national status, making it necessary for the rest to use three languages instead of two. A fellow-vernacular is claiming to be master without that superiority in expressive and political power which was so patent in its three predecessors Sanskrit, Persian English. This alone is unparalleled without reckoning the need for a third language.

I have this trilingual dilemma in mind as I tell how, quite late in life when the external situation called for a different choice, I decided to make English the medium of all my expression. It is egotistic to throw a personal decision at a national problem, but I believe its attendant circumstances give it a general interest. First, I am one of those Bengalis who as a boy had read the watchword given by Madhusudan Dutt: "Let those who feel that they have springs of fresh thought in them fly to their mother tongue", enjoyed his sneer at the "gents who fancy that they are swarthy Macaulays and Carlyles and Thackerays" but "are nothing of the sort" and absorbed the moral of his famous sonnet on the Bengali language. As I have written in my book :'   "We imbibed Dutt's teaching thoroughly and never thought oi trying our hand at English for anything but livelihood".

Secondly, I foresaw the coming role of Hindi more than twenty years ago. Pondering over the question of Indian unity I felt that with independence only Hindi could be its linguistic bond. Watching certain fashions and trends I was also worried about the future of Bengali. These thoughts converged and led me to expect the rise of Hindi at the expense of Bengali. I had my children taught Hindi before they were taught Bengali properly. '

Thirdly, I was a fairly successful practitioner of bilingulism. Among us very few write in two languages. I did for twenty years. Before the publication of my book' my output was not large, but it was evenly divided between Bengali and English.

When I consider that in spite of all this my final decision was for English, I am surprised myself. In regard to Bengali I had a credo, about Hindi I had a theory, in practice I was bilingual, Yet in the end it was the language with no presupposition behind it which won. Of course, I now know that in this too there was an assumption—what Whitehead has called "a profound cosmological outlook, implicitly accepted, imposing its own type upon current springs of action". But my perception of it came late.

I became convinced that In a world moving towards one-ness in government and culture English was bound to be the main language, to which we should have to come back if we wanted a place in the sun. With that future in view, was there any sense in lapsing into mere regionalism or continuing the old bilinguality in a very much weaker form ? The only possible answer to this question was, "None". I had become conscious of the implicitly accepted cosmological outlook of which Whitehead spoke and found that the alternatives were English or Nothing.

(source: The Statesman. Calcutta/Delhi, December 7, 1952)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with The Statesman)

 

Call Me Sri

WRITING in the Harijan, Mr Gandhi deplores the use with Indian names of the English titles "Mr" and "Esquire", which he says, jar on him. He prefers either a precedent Sri or a subsequent -ji, best of all the latter. At the end of a name -ji is certainly mellifluous and soothing; it combines respect with a pleasant informality. Indeed its use is capable of extension outside India. The next time a statesman finds it advisable to pay a flying call to Germany he might find that by addressing his Chancellor as "Hitlerji" he would introduce a certain necessary affability into the conversation. But "ji" also has its drawbacks, for a large number of Indian names, particularly in Bengal, end in -ji already. Mr Gandhi is led to understand, many Moslems regard Sri as an address which should be confined to Hindus, themselves preferring Maulvi, Janab or Saheb.

(source: The Statesman. Calcutta/Delhi, November 5, 1938)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with The Statesman)

 

When in Rome

SHOULD eminent Indian nationalists, notably members of the Congress party's front rank, attire themselves in non-Indian garments during foreign travel? The question, not without cause or expectation, has been pointedly put to Pandit Jawaharial Nehru since his return from Europe this autumn.

To sections of the public of this country, grown accustomed through the agency of Press photographs or direct vision, to admiring an orthodoxly khaddar-clad form and forgetful perhaps of its Harrovian schooling and Cambridge degree, the spectacle the Pandit presented during his recent European journey proved somewhat startling. Newspapers received and displayed picture after picture of a lounge-suited tribal-hatted figure, accompanied too, sometimes by a daughter wearing with elegance what were evidently the latest conventional creations of the Paris designer. The sight, to some, however, aesthetically pleasing it might be, raised agitating political speculations. Was not this sudden adoption of alien garb, by a Congressman of such outstanding position, derogatory in some manner to Indian nationalism, or at least liable to appear so in inimical or uninstructed minds? Mahatma Gandhi during his foreign travels in 1931, wore his usual clothing throughout; should not the Pandit have followed his example?

To these questions and the misgivings and criticisms under-lying them, Pandit Nehru has issued an unequivocal and cogent response. Clothing he says, in effect, is primarily a function of environment and climate. When it was desirable for him on public occasions, to emphasize his political beliefs by wearing khaddar he did so. But normally Indian garb in Europe is he holds unsuitable. .It invites chills, and by needlessly attracting popular attention may interfere with work. To Mahatma Gandhi special considerations apply. But the idea symbolized by khaddar garments does not logically call for their import into distant countries for use there. "To me", the Pandit declares, "it seems as absurd to wear dhoti and curta in Paris or London, as to appear in European attire in Indian villages".

(source: The Statesman. Calcutta/Delhi, December 8, 1938)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with The Statesman)

 

E Pluribus

If Smith spells his name Psmith, that's his business, but it's a nuisance to telephone companies. The Calcutta phone company decided last week to take a strong line with variant spellings. Its trouble was not with Smiths (everybody in Calcutta knew the billboarded Smith Bros., Dentists) but with Mukerjees. They spelled it Mookerjee, Mookharjea, Mookarjie, Mocurgey, and a dozen other ways. The Chatterjees and the Bannerjees also went in for whimsical variations.

Hereafter, each name would be listed only one way in the phone book. But which way? That was left up to Calcutta University (which already standardizes its students' names). A faculty board found that the high-caste ancestors of present-day Mukerjees, etc., had all been imported from Benares 600 years ago by a Bengali king who wanted to increase the number of Brahmans in his realm. When the British East India Company came to Calcutta, the Brahmans' descendants flocked to work as babus (clerks). Their employers promptly shortened the babus' names and made them more pronounceable for British tongues.*

The university decreed a return to the pre-British forms. Mukerjees, Chatterjees and Bannerjees would find themselves listed as Mukhopadhyaya, Chattopadhyaya and Bandopadhyaya. Anything simpler, Calcutta nationalists swore, would be a British imperialist corruption.

* An old Sassenach trick. Unable to pronounce Gaelic names, Edward IV issued an order in 1465 requiring all Irishmen to take "an English surname of one towne, as Sutton, Chester . . . or art or science ... or office, as cook, butler." Though the law was generally ignored, the Irish did find it expedient to Anglicize their names. In the proud name O Ceallaigh, for example, the O was dropped, hard Irish c became k, the guttural aigh softened to y; and the result was Kelly. Many Eire patriots are now reversing the process, with Murphy re-emerging as O Murchadha, and Moriarty as O Muircheartaigh.

(source: TIME Magazine, New York, Sep. 13, 1948)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)

 

 

 

 

          _____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_______________________

 

Language difficulties didn't seem to matter to either of us.

Sometimes, too, when riding the tram from the Esplanade out to our base in Alipore, I took the time to get off at the Kidderpore bridge on Diamond Harbor Road. At that location, there was an area of small shops which were always interesting to watch. People living near the bridge were friendly, would smile back when greeted that way. We didn't do much conversation due to language difficulties, but that didn't seem to matter to either of us.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

 

Few words that I guess I'll never forget

You asked about language. I did learn a few words that I guess I'll never forget. Here are some of them:

"Salaam sahib, baksheesh?"

"No mama, no papa, no brother, no sister, baksheesh, sahib"

"Tonda ponee," either cold or hot water, I don't remember which.

"No malum, sahib." I think it means, "I don't understand."

Actually, we didn't need to learn much of the language, so we didn't. English seemed to get us the information we needed. And besides, few of us thought we'd ever need the language again, for our only hope was to get home in one piece and quickly, at that.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

 

Dorothy showing off that she could speak Hindi

[…]Barney and I used to giggle over Dorothy showing off that she could speak Hindi to the servants: she would say:

"Boy' Sahib ka shaving water bring." - the only Hindi word being "Ka" which means belonging to.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Darjeeling, 1947
(source: page 38 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

I was a young Indian (Parsi) girl living in Calcutta

I was a young Indian (Parsi) girl living in Calcutta during World War II. My family consisted of my mother, father and three daughters, I was the eldest daughter. My brother had not been born yet. We lived in an apartment block in Mission Row, not far from Dalhousie Square — the spot where the “Black Hole of Calcutta” was supposed to have taken place — though Indian historians deny this episode.

My neighbours consisted of a Chinese family who had trekked from Burma, an Anglo-Indian family - Mr and Mrs Carter, a Portuguese family — Mr and Mrs Coelho and their 4 sons, and 2 Baghdad Jewish families — the Nahoums and the Manassehs.

My family lived on the top floor and from our veranda (whose doors and windows had been plastered with black and brown paper, as protection from broken glass during the air raid), I could see the steeple and weather cock of St Andrews Church, and in the background Howrah Bridge, the life-line of Calcutta connecting the 2 sides of the mighty Hooghly River.

Katyun Randhawa, a young Indian (Parsi) girl, Calcutta, 1942-3

(source: A5756150 The bombing of Calcutta by the Japanese Edited 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)

 

It wasn’t often that I had the chance to talk to Indians

It wasn’t often that I had the chance to talk to Indians, but I do remember that twice on railway journeys from Seldar to Barrackpore I did get to talk to Indians who had a fair grasp of English. The first discussion turned to religion and in particular to missionaries. I said that they didn't seem to be making much progress. He replied that so far as Indians were concerned it was ill mannered to claim religious superiority and to try to change other people's beliefs to your own. Thus was the whole business of missionaries condemned as bad mannered and unethical. The other occasion was after an air-raid in Calcutta and the man had his bags with him and was obviously leaving for a safer area. "Why don't you get out of India?" he said in exasperation. "I'd be glad to go home tomorrow" said I. Of course we had little hope of communication with the Indians, so many languages and dialects were involved and even the universal short-hand "Urdu" was used only at its most basic. Simple things like Ao (come) Jao (go) pani (water), char (tea) idhar (here) achacha (O.K.) and kitna (How Much?) were my limit and I could just about count up to five. The Anglo-Indians (half castes) were our nearest point of communication and we even had some on the staff at Barrackpore, but in their desire to be British, they were really more British than the British and couldn't help us to bridge the gulf between India and us.

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)

 

in dry-dock in Calcutta

So we went right down through the Indian Ocean from there, to Calcutta, to dry-dock, and we were in dry-dock in Calcutta for about six, eight weeks, I think. but anyway, the work was being done by Italian prisoners of war, very clever engineers, the Italians, working on the engines. In their spare time, I don’t know how they did it, they had got hold of blocks of aluminium and they were making cigarette lighters out of this aluminium, and flogging them — they did very well. Nice blokes they were, I’ve nothing against the Ities. I had to stay there, with nothing to do, and I happened to get friendly with a chief petty officer in the Royal Indian Navy I bumped into, we got very friendly, unusual for me, for in those days we considered ourselves “superior” — which is all the wrong attitude today, it wouldn’t do today we thought we were the cat’s whisker, we were important, anybody else that didn’t have the right stripe… you know. — very nice chap. Moslem, we use to go to all the places he knew. Great, you see, what meals to order, great.

Gordon Richmond, sub-lieutenant Royal Navy, Calcutta, 1944

(source: A5079323 Service in the Chongs of Burma in an HDML, 1944 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)

 

the hymns would actually be sung simultaneously in five different languages

The following year (1943) was the occasion of a very special service at church and it took a lot of my time getting the music organised and practiced. The leaflet was printed in three languages, but Mr Brown said that the hymns would actually be sung simultaneously in five different languages. Quite an experience.

Harry Tweedale, RAF, 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)

 

Hindi Exams

The only language options for the Senior Cambridge examinations were Latin and Hindi. Selection was simple, Mr. Prins decided which ones were clever enough to tackle Latin, and then all the remaining dunderheads had to do Hindi. I was well aware that my parents and I would be leaving India soon after my time at Victoria ended. Not the best incentive to buckle down to serious language study. Our Hindi - English Reader contained some twelve Hindi passages, and we knew that one would appear in the School Certificate exam paper. So, learn to recognize a few key words in Hindi script, know the general theme of each tale, and you have an (almost) foolproof method of obtaining an "only just failed" mark from the examiner. That was my theory. On the big day, I spent ten minutes scanning the text in Hindi script, and finally found a word that told me it was the story that concerned the hunter who puts a heavy narrow necked jar containing sweet meats in the forest. Once a monkey gets the sweets in his fist, it is unwilling to release the bait, so an easy capture is assured. I came out of the examination hall, and explained my system to another candidate. He looked at me for a minute. "The text was about Jesus Christ and the Twelve Apostles". There must have been a very puzzled examiner in Cambridge that year.

John Gardiner, boarding school pupil at Victoria School. Kurseong 1939-1946
(source: John Gardiner: Memories of VSK (1939 – 1946) on website of Victoria & Dow hill Schools Kurseong at  http://www.orbonline.net/~auballan/J_Gardners_VSK.htm)

 (COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Gardiner)

 

 

 

 

 

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The Colourbar

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

such a variety of human types

Perhaps nowhere in the world, except in Soviet Russia, can we find such a variety of human types as in India. Four main racial types are still in evidence: the Aryans, as exemplified in the high-caste Hindus; the Austrics, as illustrated in the primitive tribes like the Kols, Bhils, etc.; the Dravidians who occupy southern India; and the Mongolians who predominate in Nepal, Bhutan and Assam.

(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_______________________

 

how pallid the woman was

As to myself, there as a party of Europeans dining in the Lumding refreshment room. They were the first white people I had seen for four months.  I stared and stared – how odd, how knobbed and craggy they were, after the smooth Mongol faces; how pallid the woman was, like a plant left in the dark! How strange the usual seemed after the separation; I couldn’t stop looking, they must have thought I was mad. Oddly enough one only notices these things after the first spell away from one’s own kind; after that the gap seems to close, and one makes the transition without the same shock of surprise.

Ursula Graham Bower Anthropologist, Calcutta, 1940

 

(source: pages 84 Ursula Graham Bower “Naga Path” Readers Union, John Murray. London 1952)

 

 

 

How racist were the British? (Rejection at the Saturday Club)

Yes they were, they were rather stupid in that sense. They segregated and created a lot of bad feelings. But they were not so particular with the ruling class. For instance the Aga Khan, he went to all the white man's clubs and all that. I remember when the British were becoming more sensible [in the 1930's], they were not using all these things although the laws existed. They were not applied. For instance I went to Calcutta not knowing that there were clubs where black people like us were not admitted.

I walked into the Saturday Club and said I want to become a member. They were shocked. When the Club people told me that I couldn't become a member because I was black, I was shocked. What nonsense. By then these things were kept at a very low level and you only came across them by accidents like this. Maybe if I had gone through the proper channels I would never have discovered this law. Maybe they would have accepted me like they accepted many others. They were sort of slowly getting more sensible.

Princess Abida Sultan, heir apparent to the throne of Bhopal, head of Bhopal state cabinet. Calcutta, early 1940s
 (Source Omar Khan’s interview in 1990-91 at http://www.harappa.com/abida/abidatext.html#20)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Omar Khan)

 

“No admission to Indians”

There was a small board in front of Metro Cinema, saying: “No admission to Indians”.

(N.S. Mani, newly employed office worker from Kerala, Calcutta, February 1945
(source: Telegraph Thursday, October 27, 2005)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with N.S. Mani )

 

Who considered themselves pure bred

Walter married an Anglo-Indian girl who was rather dark skinned and because of this the rest of his family (who considered themselves pure bred) did not have much to do with him after that.

The original meaning of the word "Anglo-Indian" was English people who settled in India or spent large parts of their lives there. People of mixed blood were referred to as "Eurasian" or more impolitely "Half-caste" or even "Chi-chi" - an Indian word meaning "dirty".

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta, 1940s
(source: page 36 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

they were looking at her white skin and putting their prices up

[…] we used to joke about her habit of bargaining with the shopkeepers and telling them that they were looking at her white skin and putting their prices up. This was so funny because she was as dark as they were! She didn't think it was funny though.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta, 1940s
(source: page 36 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

"Let's have the Maharanee of Bong"

Mrs Clarke replaced Mrs Simpson as the English Teacher and also taught us Geography when the geography teacher also left. Whilst I think she was a good teacher - she terrorised us – me especially. She was - at least she seemed to me to be enormous but I don't think she was that tall. She was just a large lady all round and she had the most enormous buck teeth I had ever seen (Shades of my Aunty Kathleen perhaps). She had very cold blue eyes and she would fix you with a steely stare. She had a terrible habit of reducing me to an absolute pulp by saying things like "Now we will have Mama's little darling." Or"Let's have the Maharanee of Bong" and the whole class would laugh at my blushes and it was absolutely awful and so 1 don't think my results were as good as they would have been had I ' not had to cope with this sort of goading - if you like - or perhaps you would call it discrimination.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. La Martiniere for Girls, Calcutta, 1948-51
(source: page 51 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

… the fact that his grandchildren were what he called "niggers"

My grandfather had also been a great character […]

Although for expedience he had married his youngest and dearest daughter to an Anglo-Indian and a very dark skinned one at that - he was the very Pukka Sahib and I don't think was terribly happy about the fact that his grandchildren were what he called "niggers". However, one must not judge him. He was a product of his era and would have been an eccentric at best and an outcast at worst had he thought differently. My Aunt of course compounded the felony by marrying an Indian although she never bad any children by him but she did change my name to Shah and that caused me a great deal of hardship as I grew older.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta, 1940s
(source: page 40-41 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

I think she was rather colour prejudiced

My Aunt Dolly, whose first marriage ended tragically with the death of her husband Jeremy Wilkes, unfortunately married a friend of his on the rebound. She used to tell me about her "Jerry" who was blonde and blue eyed and she said she always had a soft spot for blue eyes after him. Oddly enough, I think she was rather colour prejudiced because she went to great pains to ensure that I did not get tanned, dressing me in long sleeved dresses and long stockings, even in the summer. Despite this, I have never known anybody with such Christian charity. She would tend the dirtiest, blackest, beggar if she felt they needed it. Unfortunately, her second marriage did not work out. Kingsley Lewis, the man she married was a very dark skinned man with a terribly posh accent and a great deal of education. He was in military intelligence and had a brilliant career ahead of him. After she left him, he left Patna and went to Delhi, rising to the rank of Colonel in the Indian Army. Both his sons by his second wife, Barbara - also joined the services, the older as a pilot and the younger in the army.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta 1940s
(source: page 26-27 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

St Francis de Sales in Nagpur

Dominic and Barney were sent to a boarding school, St Francis de Sales in Nagpur. Not long after Stephen joined them. Being of mixed parentage, we were a rather motley bunch ranging from very dark like my father to milk white like my mother and Dominic, being the whitest was always treated as something special. He was sent as a parlour boarder which meant he had special meals and special treatment whilst the other two, who were dark skinned were sent as ordinary boarders and told me horrific stories of the treatment they received at the hands of the Jesuit Brothers. Barney used to tell me about one who oiled malacca canes to make them sting more when he caned the boys

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Ranchi, mid 1940s
(source: page 25 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

I was I something different because of my mixed blood

I was very subdued in this school for many reasons. I had become very introverted and shy partly because I found it very hard to cope with life outside my family. Within my family I had been treated like a little princess. Once outside the family circle I was I something different because of my mixed blood and the first experiences which brought this home to me were pretty traumatic. It was not simply that I was Anglo-Indian because there were many Anglo-Indians. It was the peculiar nature of my circumstances because the usual Anglo-Indians lived entirely in the style of the English. We were something in between because of my Aunt's husband being a full-blooded Indian and a Muslim. Whilst she did not ever change her religion and still went to Church, she insisted that she did not want me to be known as Anglo-Indian. Now with hindsight I realise what she meant but then, her method of denying that I was Anglo-Indian only made the problem worse.

For example, in La Martiniere my Aunt entered me under her surname rather than my own and her surname being Indian and my Christian name being English and Christian this posed a problem.  Therefore any name was put in a separate entry on the register. There were the Anglo-Indian girls who all had Christian and English names at the top of the register, then a space, then my name, then a space and then the Indian girls. I was also treated by the girls themselves as neither fish nor fowl. The Anglo-Indians regarded me as Indian and the Indians as Anglo-Indian and since neither side really mixed I found myself in no man's land. To try to explain how this affected me would be impossible in to-day's liberal world. One must remember that we were living during the British Raj and immediately after when the same standards were still prevalent. It is very hard for my children who have grown up in England and do not have any such identity crisis to appreciate what a terrible complex this gave me. I tended to try to blend into the furniture wherever I went and hated anything which would draw attention to me. Hence, although I was more intelligent than the majority of the girls in my form, I never volunteered to answer anything unless it was in writing when I did not have to speak.

It was very hard to talk to anybody because nobody else had the sort of life that I had. My Aunt being so devoted to her husband brought me in a sort of mixture of Victoriana and Islamic strictures - like the fact that being female; I could not go out alone unattended. I was not even allowed to wait at the bus stop without one of my brothers standing beside me and it was only when they were completely unavailable that I stood there on my own and then she stood there and watched me from the balcony so that if anybody spoke to me it was quite obvious.

[…]

Whilst being conscious of an innate desire to please her, I was also the victim of my dreadful shyness and the my terrible insecurity in being different from everybody else.

In her defence perhaps it can be argued that since she had never experienced an identity crisis, she was unaware ofwhat this did to me. She was white - there was no doubt as to the nationality of her parents, her upbringing had been entirely English and upper class.

Laving flouted the conventions by marrying out of her community she plunged herself into being his wife and learning his customs and probably had no inkling that the world was not a very charitable place for children of such unions.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. La Martiniere, Calcutta, 1948-51
(source: page 41-42 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

I had been penalised throughout my career at La Martiniere for being half and half

My vindication came when the results of the Cambridge Exams proved that, I had been penalised throughout my career at La Martiniere for being half and half because never did they let me come first on occasions when it appeared that I would come first, marks used to be cut from my papers for the most ridiculous things.

I was such a quiet girl that I never opened my mouth, being too timid to say anything to anyone. The Cambridge papers were flown to England and so were corrected by people who did not have a clue as to the identity of the students. In both of these Examinations I came first in the class even though in the Senior Cambridge my age was considerably lower than all of the other girls some of whom were taking the examinations in their second year whereas I did them in one year.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. La Martiniere for Girls, Calcutta, 1948-51
(source: page 48 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

We were told that they never changed their clothes

One could trek from Tonglu to Sikkim or into the neighbouring mountain Kingdom of Nepal. The local people were rosy cheeked and dressed in colourful kimono type gowns which were worn over long shirt type undergarments. We were told that they never changed their clothes but put new ones on over the old when they became threadbare although perhaps this was just one of the silly stories which went around India.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Darjeeling, 1947
(source: page 32 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Interaction

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

American soldier photographs a man near Nimtala Ghat, 1944

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

 (source: Glenn S. Hensley: American soldier photographing, T013, "American soldier photographs a man near Nimtala Ghat, 1944."  seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a  series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August 2001)

 

 (COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

 

 

 

Howell and Burger. Calcutta rickshaw

Robert Sanders , USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1945

(source: webpage http://40thbombgroup.org/indiapics2.html  Monday, 03-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of Bob Sanders)

 

 

More of the same

Robert Sanders , USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1945

(source: webpage http://40thbombgroup.org/indiapics2.html  Monday, 03-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of Bob Sanders)

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

HINDU GIRL PREFERS TO STAY WITH MUSLIM

An interesting story of a Hindu girl's refusal to go back to her father from the custody of one Muslim gentleman was heard before Mr. Justice Mukherjea and Mr. Justice Akram when an appeal preferred by the appellant Bhagaban Chandra Pal against the order of the district judge of Sylhet rejecting the application for guardianship of the appellant's minor daughter came upage.

It appeared that the appellant's daughter. Sachimoyee aged 15 years and, a few months, professing Hindu religion, was a minor and was kidnapped from his lawful custody by Nur Ali and others. It was further stated that in November 1939 the appellant submitted before a magistrate a formal petition for the custody of his minor daughter after the recovery of the girl by the police. The said application was however disallowed and the girl was directed to remain in the custody of maulvi Abdul Hye, pleader, Habigunj. Accordingly it was prayed that the appellant who was the father of the girl might be appointed the guardian of the person of minor daughter. The minor girl however made a petition before the additional district judge, Sylhet, stating inter alia that she was 20 years of age and she left her father's house voluntarily, and was unwilling to return to her father.

The learned district judge directed the girl to be made over to the custody of Mr. Serajuddin Chowdhury, a pleader. Further. As she had been made over to Muslim custody by him (district judge) no question of certificated guardian could arise.

Against that order the present appeal was preferred.

Their lordships directed the case to be remanded for proper investigation. Mr. N.C. Chatterjee. Mr. Anil Chandra Roy Chowdhury and Mr. H. K. Paramanik appeared for the appellant, Mr. Asrafuddin Chowdhury and Mr. Syedur Rahman for the respondents, maulvi Serajuddin Chowdhury and another.

 ‘Star of India’, Calcutta, 23.02.1942, page 03

  (source ‘Star of India’, Calcutta, 23.02.1942, page 03)

 

 

 

 

          _____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_______________________

 

 

I gave him my rice on exchange for his meat, which he would never touch

My room overlooked the lawn and had only one occupant, an Indian RAF man, I never did find out what he did. He must have been one of us and he was very nice and a devout Hindu. His father was a high ranking Hindi priest (I never met him). My room mate was very friendly and took me to some Indian army entertainment. We ate in the RAF canteen and I gave him my rice on exchange for his meat, which he would never touch.

Philip Miles, RAF photo reconnaissance unit, Calcutta, mid 1940s

(source: A4144664 What did you do in the RAF, Dad? (Part 2) 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)

 

Moving out to Marquis Street

A few days after the contretemps with me - my father found a job with Uberoi's the firm who had originally employed my Uncle as a travelling salesman and he found some accommodation and came and took Aunty Dolly and Stephen and me away from Mazda Mansions leaving Wahid alone with my two sisters who said they did not want to leave.

Marquis Sheet - the place we went to live in was something you read about but cannot believe unless you have seen it. It was in what is known in India as a Bustee. Here you would call it a slum and in America you would call it a Ghetto. There were all sorts of people-there were Anglo Indians, there were South Indians - there were mostly people who for one reason or other had fallen foul of their families and had nowhere else to go. There was a Brahmin (the highest caste of Hindu). I never found out why he was in that place. There was a South Indian girl called Pippa who was married to a Sindi man and they were ostracised because Sindis are never allowed to marry outside their own community. They are very-sortof-in house. They had this little place and he used to make Indian sweets and also wholesaled tea so he gave us tea for free. She was so good to us because we were literally penniless sometimes and she used to bring us food. They were vegetarians but it was very nice food when she did bring it. She would sit for hours and talk to us and the great heartbreak of her life was that she had been unable to give her husband a child and she tried everything. This made her doubly a failure in her own eyes and in the eyes of his people who looked on it as God's visitation on him because he had broken their law and married a girl from outside the community.

The Landlord was a Sindi and he openly boasted that as far as he was concerned business came before even his mother and you paid your rent or else you were out. That was it. It was a dreadful place. We had to share a bathroom which was absolutely appalling.

There was running water only a couple of hours per day and we had fill up containers with water when it was flowing. Of course there was no hot water so cold water baths were the thing.

It was a dreadful place and I can remember one night waking up to find that the sheet was absolutely a mass of cockroaches. Somebody had fumigated their house and because this area was so open these cockroaches had flown off from there and just invaded us en masse. Never before had I seen and I hope never again to see anything like it. I was absolutely terrified as were we all. Can you imagine waking up in the middle of the night and finding your sheet one mass of brown crawling cockroaches - like something out of a horror film.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. La Martiniere for Girls, Calcutta, 1947
(source: page 46-47 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

Phyllis Day

Another family we knew were the Days. Phyllis Day was an Anglo-Indian girl married to a Bengali man. This was very unusual, High caste Hindu families were very opposed to mixed marriages but even more so when the girt was "Half-caste". They had a huge house on the outskirts of Ranchi and we often visited them. There were many children - I cannot remember all of them, I was much younger and spent most of my time with Stephen when we went to their house. The last we heard of this family was that Phyllis had killed her husband. The details were never made public but this was years later when we were living in Calcutta and of course, people did not discuss things in front of the children.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Ranchi, mid 1940s
(source: page 24 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

Our staff

Our staff - theBearer as head of house, a chokra as his assistant, a khansama, and a jimadar ; apart from our khansama who was a Mohamedan, the other members were Hindu.

Kenneth Miln, son of a ‘jute wallah’. Jagatdal/Calcutta, 1945-49
 (source: Letter sent to us  by Mr Kenneth Miln himself, July 2006/ Reproduced by courtesy of Kenneth Miln)

 

 

 

 

 

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Bengalis

 

 

 

 

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West-Bengalis (Ghothis)

 

 

 

 

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          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

 

 

 

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East-Bengalis (Bangals)

 

 

 

 

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          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

 

 

 

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Muslims

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

 

AREA AND POPULATION

AREA AND POPULATION: The area of Calcutta including the suburbs is a little over 30 square miles. From the north to the south it extends over 10 miles.

Numerically, Calcutta is, next to London, the largest and therefore the second city in the British Empire. The population in 1941, when the last census was taken, stood at 2,108,891 (Males 1,452,362; Females 659,529; Hindus 1,531,512; Muslims 497,535; rest 79,844.)

 

(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)

 

 

The Moslems

The Moslems.   Next to the Hindus, the largest and most important group in India are the Moslems. They first came to India about 1,000 years ago, pouring down through the mountain passes in the northwest. They settled in the conquered northern regions and made converts to the religion of Islam.

Because of their warlike background and because their religion is a more militant one than that of the Hindus who ordinarily believe in nonviolence, the Moslems make up a substantial part of the Indian Army. That doesn't mean that Hindus don't make good soldiers. They have proven that they do in this war, as well as the last.

In contrast to the many Hindu gods, Moslems believe in one god only - ALLAH. They have no caste system and they follow the teachings of their great prophet Mohammed. Their religion is called Islam (is-LAHM).

Moslems pray five times a day, kneeling and bowing to the ground, facing in the direction of Mecca, their holy city in Arabia. They worship in congregations at their mosques where the service consists mainly of reading from the Koran, their holy book. Moslems eat beef but not pork. They are extremely touchy about this, so be careful never to offer a Moslem pork or anything cooked in pork products. They use separate drinking fountains and toilet facilities which are provided at railroad stations and other public places. They regard it as a sin to expose the body. Be most careful not to offend them in this respect.

It's a good rule to keep away from both Moslem mosques and Hindu temples unless you are in the hands of a competent guide. The presence of unbelievers is resented. You might innocently offend their most sacred customs. For instance, you would be desecrating a mosque or a temple if you entered wearing shoes.

Always keep an attitude of respect and your unintentional offenses will be more readily forgiven. Never smile or joke among yourselves at peculiarities or strange customs that you observe. Your English may be understood. Even if not, your mocking attitude will be sensed and fiercely resented.

You will hear much about the enmity between Hindus and Moslems. There are religious and political problems which sometimes result in clashes between the two groups. Yet many Hindus and Moslems live side by side all of their lives without trouble; in the main, you probably won't be able to tell a Moslem from a Hindu at a glance.

 

(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)

 

 

Addresses of Muslim Clubs and Asssociations in 1940

Muslim Chamber of Commerce—22 Canning Street. Phe. Cal. 629.

Mohamedan Sporting Club—Maidan. Phone, Cal. 3904.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 241 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

Muslims

 Among Muslims there is no caste system, but there are religious sects, chief among which are the Shias and Sunnis, differing in the observance of certain religious rites.

 

(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)

 

 

THE NAKHODA MOSQUE

Admission:—Mahomedans (Worshippers), 4 a.m. to midnight.            Non-Mahomedans (Visitors), 6 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Location:—1 Zakaria Street (Chitpore).

Trams :—Esplanade-Baghbazar via Chitpore. Esplanade-Belgatchia via Chitpore.

Buses :—4, 4A.

Muslims in Calcutta have every reason to be proud of the beautiful and stately Nakhoda Mosque, a prayer house of distinctive Oriental character and design. Solemn and dignified in its construction, this sacred edifice is modelled on Akbar's tomb at Sikandra near Agra. A notable feature associated with its erection, is that it is the gift of a single small community, the Cutchi Memon Jama'at, a Mahomedan sect in Calcutta, who resolved to present their co-religionists with a mosque that would rank among the greatest "Places of Prayer" in the world.

The foundation stone was laid on the 11th  September 1926, and the building, constructed at a cost of Rs. 15,00,000/-, stands as a lasting monument to the generosity of the Cutchi Memons.

The Mosque, with its large Prayer Hall capable of accommodating 10,000 worshippers, its majestic dome, its two lofty minarets, each 151 feet high, and 25 smaller ones .surmounted by cupolas, whose heights range from 100 to 117 feet, should be a great attraction to visitors.

The entrance is through the lofty arches of two imposing gateways of red sandstone from Dholpur, designed after the famous Buland Gate of Fatehpur-Sikri. Rich ornamental marble, with designs similar to those of the Taj Mahal and other celebrated Muslim edifices in the East, have been lavishly used in the interior.

During the month of Ramazan, beacons visible from a great distance shine from minarets, to indicate to the Faithful the proper time of fast, which all Muslims are called upon to observe.

The Mosque is administered by a Board of Trustees, appointed exclusively from the members of the Cutchi Memon Jama'at. 

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source page 134 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

ISLAMIA COLLEGE

Location :—8 Wellesley Street.

Trams :—Dalhousie Square-Park Circus.

Buses :—8, 8A.

To meet the educational needs of the Moslem Community, the Government of Bengal in 1881 had under consideration a scheme for the establishment of a second grade college. It was not until 1884, however, that the First Arts (now called the Intermediate in Arts) class was started in the Calcutta Madrassah. In July 1888 an amalgamation was effected with the Presidency College, for teaching purposes only, and from that date the Madrassah students attended lectures at the Presidency College.

Efforts to establish independent Arts Classes were not successful till 1923, when the proposal was placed before the Legislative Council and funds sanctioned for the building of the Islamia College. The foundation stone was laid by Lord Lytton in December 1924, and the building completed and formally opened in July 1926.

The structure, typically Islamic, consists of a main block facing east, with two wings at right angles to the north and south extremities. A wrought/iron gate, railings, balconies, domes, and grilles to the windows, serve to emphasize its Oriental design.

The College is under the control of the Director of Public Instruction and is affiliated to the Calcutta University up to the I.A, I. Sc. and B. A. standards.  It has accommodation for four hundred students, admission being restricted to Muslims. The Baker Hostel, for the College students, is located at Smith Lane (Wellesley Square) and has accommodation for two hundred boarders.

The College has well-equipped laboratories, and a library containing over 7000 volumes, including a collection of rare Arabic, Persian, and Urdu manuscripts.

The College Union conducts a variety of activities, including weekly lectures, a college magazine and an annual St. John's Ambulance Class for First Aid certificates. Mohsin stipends have been allotted to the College, and some private stipends are also awarded from the Poor Students' Fund.

In addition, several scholarships are awarded to deserving students, the chief being the Lytton Scholarship of £170 per annum for study in the United Kingdom. The College is ably staffed with efficient Professors and Lecturers, and the success of the students at the Calcutta University Examinations is very satisfactory. The College figures in all athletic sports and has a regular Physical Instructor.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 135-136 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

CALCUTTA MADRASSAH

A short distance from the College, at No. 21A Wellesley Square, is the CALCUTTA MADRASSAH. This is the oldest educational institution in Calcutta. It was founded in 1780 by the Hon'ble Warren Hastings, who purchased a plot of land on the south side of Baitakhana Road, erected the building at his own expense, and maintained it till 1782, when the Government took it over.

The present Madrassah, a massive structure built on the four sides of a quadrangle, was erected on the 15th July 1824. It consists of the following :—

The Arabic Department, with about 600 students.

The Anglo-Persian Department, with about 650 students.

The Woodburn Middle English School, with approximately 150 pupils.

The Elliot Hostel (facing the Madrassah) with accommodation for 134 boarders, and

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source page 136 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

THE MUSLIM INSTITUTE

A handsome three-storeyed building, the foundation stone of which was laid by Sir Stanley Jackson, then Governor of Bengal, on the 26th February 1931. The Institute is equipped with a large reading room, a wellstocked library, an up-to-date gymnasium, and a spacious hall used for lectures and civic and social gatherings. The primary object of the Institute is to promote friendly relations among the Muslim Community, to encourage the study of religious, social, literary, and scientific subjects, and to develop mental and physical culture among its many members. Various privileges are offered to members, including debates, games, socials and excursions.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source page136  of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

Jinnah Split

[…]

Socially, Indian Moslems are a solid, self-conscious minority group (just less than  one-fourth of India's population) ; Hindus are a loosely-bound, sect-split,  caste-stratified majority (three-fourths).

Hindus are the wealthier group. In general, Hindus are landowners, capitalists,  shopkeepers, professionals, employers ; Moslems are peasants, artisans, laborers.

In Bengal, where Hindus are only 43% of the population, they pay 85% of the taxes.

One of the main reasons for this difference is that usury, which accounts for far more  profit in India than trade, is forbidden to Moslems by religious law.

[…]

(source: TIME Magazine, New York,  Dec. 4, 1939)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)

 

 

 

 

 

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Sikhs

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

The Man From Punjab

 The man with the turban and the well-kept whiskers, he is a Punjabi, usually one of the Sikhs from Punjab. You will find him seated behind the wheel of a taxi; for he has almost succeeded in monopolizing the local taxi-cab business, a most lucrative one. Since he is probably a Sikh, don't offer him that friendly cigarette; smoking is against their custom, and your gesture of friendship may be taken amiss. Fierce-looking fellow, isn't he? As a matter of fact he is quite a warrior, as more than one Axis foe has unwillingly learned. His attitude toward you? Well, aside from the attempts to manipulate that taxi meter, he is quite willing to meet you halfway as one of your Allies.

 

(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army Forces in India - Burma, 1945:  at: http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.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)

 

 

The Sikhs

The Sikhs.   The Sikhs, from Northern India, belonging mostly to the Punjab region, are neither Hindu nor Moslem. They are followers of 10 teachers called Gurus, the last of whom was Guru Govind Singh who died without naming a successor. They have great reputations as fighting men. A Sikh to become a "Singh," that is, a follower of the tenth Guru, goes through an initiation ceremony which entitles him to include "Singh" (which means lion) in his name. There are about six million Sikhs in India. They are tall and large of frame. In peacetime they are farmers, policemen and mechanics as well as soldiers. They operate most of the taxicabs in the larger cities and for all of their fierce looks, they are friendly unless aroused.

The Sikhs are not supposed to cut their hair. They braid their beards and tie them up inside their turbans. The legend is that as warriors, they must always be ready to fight at a moment's notice with no time to shave or cut their hair, hence the long hair and the comb always stuck in it. The long hair is one of the five "k's" observed by the Sikhs. They must have their hair long (kesh), use an iron bracelet on the right wrist (Kara), wear short underpants (kachh), use a wooden comb (kanga) and carry a full size or miniature knife with an iron handle (kirpan).

 

(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)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Marwaris

 

 

 

 

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          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

 

Addresses of Marwari Clubs and Associations in 1940

Marwari Rowing Club—Dhakuria Lake. Phone, South 742.

Jodhpur Club, Ltd.—Gariahat Road (Dhakuria P.O.). Phone, P.K.100.

All India Marwari Federation—156 Harrison Rd. Phe., B.B. 4467.

Marwari Chamber of Commerce —203/1 Harrison Rd. Phe., B.B. 2265.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 241 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

 

 

 

 

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Nepalis

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

The Gurkhas

The Gurkhas.   Special mention should be made of the Gurkhas, a warlike, sturdy and cheerful race. They are Hindus but unlike most Hindus have a strong military tradition. They came from the independent kingdom of Nepal, on the northeast frontier but are permitted to join the Indian Army as volunteers. They have maintained a spirit of close camaraderie with British soldiers and especially enjoy playing western games, particularly football.

 

(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)

 

 

 

 

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Bihari & Oriyas

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

The Labouring Man

 Who is he, that somewhat dirty, ill-clothed fellow, that sweating fellow, who hauls you to your destination in a rickshaw, the amazing individual who lugs a load of you-name-it-he'll-carry-it in a basket on his head, the one who struggles through the over-crowded streets with a heavily loaded bamboo push cart? In the majority of case that laboring man is a Bihari immigrant to Bengal. Sometimes he comes from Orissa or United Provinces. It is only rarely that you will see a Bengali so employed. The work is hard and of a drudging nature, and the pay is poor; these men eke out an existence from day to day.

 

(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army Forces in India - Burma, 1945:  at: http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.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)

 

 

The Homeless Man

At some time or other while you are here you will witness the sight of a crowd of men, women, and children who seem to move together like a herd of sheep. They huddle together, or they rush across the street in a mob, or they gather in a group shouting and jabbering - they are new arrivals in the city. Driven here by the famine, by flood, drought, or other causes, they come from Bengal itself, from Bihar, Orissa, or Assam. Homeless, helpless, hopeless when they reach Calcutta, they fare as men have always fared, in that the able-bodied and the strong among them as usual survive and soon find their way into the immense labor corps around the city - the rest, they soon vanish - some die in the epidemics, others just disappear.

 

(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army Forces in India - Burma, 1945:  at: http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.html)

 

 

 

 

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South Indians

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

 

 

 

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Anglo-Indian Life

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

Addresses of Anglo-Indian Clubs and Associations in 1940

Anglo-Indian and Domiciled European Association—87A Park Street. Phone, P.K. 238.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 238 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

 

 

          _____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_______________________

 

You see, we never considered ourselves anything but "English"

You see, we never considered ourselves anything but "English" - all our culture, upbringing and thinking was English and it came as something of a shock when as the years went by and things changed, and more people intermarried - the word Anglo- Indian became a dirty word.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Darjeeling, 1947
(source: page 38 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

Anglo-Indians

OK, you want to know if I had ever met any Anglo-Indians. Yes, I met a few, but didn't know any of them well enough to remember names. I do know there were many Anglo-Indian young women who I would have liked to meet -- if I didn't have a wife awaiting me back home. It seemed to me that there were more beautiful Anglo-Indian gals than any kind of gal in the US. Of course,Indian women were great, too. With their long, black hair in braids or otherwise flowing down their sarees, I thought they were the best "lookers" in the world.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

 

… the heather growing round the doorstep and the pipes paying at the bottom of the garden.

I am reminded of an occasion when we were invited to the wedding of one of the staff whose father was a Scot and mother an Anglo-Indian, was young, attractive and as fair as a lily. During the course of the celebrations when Harry Lauder records were being played, the bridegroom’s mother, an amiable lady, tuned t me with a hint of nostalgia in her voice remarked, “ Oh, but how thus reminds me of my home in Hampstead Heath – the heather growing round the doorstep and the pipes paying at the bottom of the garden. “

Eugenie Fraser, wife of a jute mill manager, Calcutta, late 1940s

 (source:page 180 of Eugenie Fraser: “A home by the Hooghly. A jute Wallahs Wife” .Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing  1989)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Eugenie Fraser)

 

An Anglo-Indian Volunteer

I was born in Calcutta, India. My grandfather was Portuguese. I joined the British Army Royal Warwickshire Regiment in Meerut (where the Indian Mutiny too place in 1857) in India. I joined as a private but after some training and on recommendation, I was promoted to sergent and joined the 17th Indian division in India. After some preliminary training sailed from Calcutta to Rangoon in 1942.

Denzil Rebeiro, sergent in the 17th Indian division, Calcutta, 1942

 

(source: A3608697 Burma with the Warwickshire Regiment 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)

 

There is no welfare state in India and the relicts of the British Raj fare the worst

There is no welfare state in India and the relicts of the British Raj fare the worst. My grandmother received an army pension for the duration of her life - of thirty rupees a month which is about £ 1.50. My father, who had been in the Secretariat as the Civil Service was called for over thirty years, received a pension of One Hundred Rupees a month for the last few years of his life. He continued working after they retired him at the age of 50 and worked until a few weeks before he died of lung cancer, aged 74 in January 1968.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Darjeeling, 1947
(source: page 38 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

… there was Eurasian women and there was quite a few romances

But as I say. there was Eurasian women and there was quite a few romances amongst them. It was easier for our fellows to make contact with them. Because usually they spoke perfect English for a start. Most of the Indian people didn't speak English unless they were traders and that, so there was a language barrier there with them. And then Indian people had been treated very badly for generations by the British.

Eddie Mathieson, Marines’ commando soldier  on the Burma Front. Calcutta, 1944/45
(source: page 240 of MacDougall, Ian: Voices from War and some Labour Struggles; Personal Recollections of War in our Century by Scottish Men and Women. Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 1995)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Ian MacDougall)

 

Who considered themselves pure bred

Walter married an Anglo-Indian girl who was rather dark skinned and because of this the rest of his family (who considered themselves pure bred) did not have much to do with him after that.

The original meaning of the word "Anglo-Indian" was English people who settled in India or spent large parts of their lives there. People of mixed blood were referred to as "Eurasian" or more impolitely "Half-caste" or even "Chi-chi" - an Indian word meaning "dirty".

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta, 1940s
(source: page 36 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

they were looking at her white skin and putting their prices up

[…] we used to joke about her habit of bargaining with the shopkeepers and telling them that they were looking at her white skin and putting their prices up. This was so funny because she was as dark as they were! She didn't think it was funny though.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta, 1940s
(source: page 36 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

Phyllis Day

Another family we knew were the Days. Phyllis Day was an Anglo-Indian girl married to a Bengali man. This was very unusual, High caste Hindu families were very opposed to mixed marriages but even more so when the girt was "Half-caste". They had a huge house on the outskirts of Ranchi and we often visited them. There were many children - I cannot remember all of them, I was much younger and spent most of my time with Stephen when we went to their house. The last we heard of this family was that Phyllis had killed her husband. The details were never made public but this was years later when we were living in Calcutta and of course, people did not discuss things in front of the children.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Ranchi, mid 1940s
(source: page 24 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

 

 

 

 

 

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British

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

Europeans in India

Europeans in India.   The term "European" in India generally means British. But it also includes other European peoples and some Americans. The British once held all the important governmental posts in the country and still hold many of them. British business men have developed India's trade and control much of the banking system. They manage many of India's factories.

For many years outstanding graduates of Oxford and Cambridge went to India as young men and served there all their lives in the Indian Civil Service, which is the administrative branch of the government. But in recent years Indians have come increasingly into positions of responsibility both in business and government.

You go to India at a time when the relations between the Indians and the British are under strong tension. It is better for you not to discuss this situation. You can rub a Britisher or an Indian the wrong way by trying to give him advice about Indian affairs. The statement made by your own State Department, printed in the front of this book, should govern your actions and your talk.

When you come into contact with Britishers in India, remember they are naturally reserved. They respect each other's privacy. If Britons are slow to strike up conversation with you, remember they are that way with each other. It does not mean they are being haughty or unfriendly. They don't speak to you because they don't want to appear intrusive or rude.

The British dislike bragging or showing off. American wages and American soldier's pay are the highest in the world and money goes a long way in India. When pay day comes, it would be sound practice to learn to spend your money according to the standards of the community where you are. The British consider you highly paid. They won't think any better of you for throwing money around. They are more likely to think you have not learned the common-sense virtues of thrift. The British soldier is apt to be especially touchy about the difference between his pay and yours. Keep this in mind. Use common sense and don't rub him the wrong way.

Don't be misled by the British tendency to be soft-spoken and polite. If they need to be they can be plenty tough. The British can take it. They have proved it in the course of this war. In India they have every reason for building solid friendship with us - as we have with them. Remember that the British soldier who has been out in India has learned many things about how to live and get along in the country. He can give you many practical tips that will help you in India. At the same time it is a good idea to form your own impressions and learn for yourself.

 

(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_______________________

 

 

Snobbery, precedence and protocol flourished

In Calcutta itself there were also divisions. Snobbery, precedence and protocol flourished. People with similar professions and backgrounds tended to sick together. The Indians also clung to their own kind. The Marwarris from Rajasthan , for instance, never mixed with the Bengalis. For some reason certain Europeans in Calcutta imagined that they resided on a higher plane that those who lived in the compounds at the mills, which was quite ridiculous as not many came out of the top drawer.

Eugenie Fraser, wife of a jute mill manager, Calcutta, 1940

 (source:page 84 of Eugenie Fraser: “A home by the Hooghly. A jute Wallahs Wife” .Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing  1989)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Eugenie Fraser)

 

Oh, you were lookin' for trouble if you started sniffin' around Indian women

Indian women were very submissive to their husbands. There was no romances or anythin' like that between Indian women and our lads—well, not to my knowledge! The situation didn't—I mean, you weren't liked anyway. Oh, you were lookin' for trouble if you started sniffin' around Indian women.

Eddie Mathieson, Marines’ commando soldier  on the Burma Front. Calcutta, 1944/45
(source: page 239 of MacDougall, Ian: Voices from War and some Labour Struggles; Personal Recollections of War in our Century by Scottish Men and Women. Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 1995)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Ian MacDougall)

 

He was always most sturdily English

He was always most sturdily English. In early days, Father Strong tried to make him appreciate the beauty in some Hindu observances or in the Bhagavad Gita. but, he would have none of it. “'I'm sorry, but I can't bear it. The Apostles called all that sort of thing "abominable idolatries" and I'm afraid I agree.” And he had an inveterate prejudice against Indian music. The hymns in church, both at Barisal in his time and at Behala were invariably sung to Western tunes. Part of the attraction, indeed, of Behala was that it was to some extent English Christianity transported to India—whether that really resulted, in the building up of an Indian Church was another matter. Douglass might well have answered that we English had to bring to India the best we had and that it was for Indians themselves, once grounded in the Faith, to adapt its forms of worship. His tendency was to educate boys, as much as possible, in English. If they could, they always talked to the Father in English, his theory being that it would help them later in their jobs.

Friends of Father Douglass, Missionaries and Charity workers in Behala, Calcutta, 1945.
(Source: Father Douglas of Behala. London, 1952 / Reproduced by courtesy of Oxford University Press)

 

A portly (and very British-looking) gentleman

What was my reaction to the British? After arriving in Calcutta I soon received a lesson on why the Indians had no love for the British. I was walking along Chowringee, not far from the old Whiteaway & Laidlaw department store, when I noticed a portly (and very British-looking) gentleman striding down the center of the sidewalk ahead of me. He wore a white field jacket; white short, walking pants; a pith helmet and carried a riding crop-type stick.

He kept to the center of the sidewalk and approaching Indians got out of his way. Indians he overtook from the rear, if they didn't volutarily step aside for him, he would reach out with his stick and snap them on either the back of the head or on a bare arm. They would turn, see who had hit them and quickly step aside with only a visual glower.

That was my indoctrination into British-Indian relations.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

 

"Mackey" the tramp

There was an old tramp called simply "Mackey" who used to hang around Sandell Street. He was so dirty and his hair was long and matted and he wore a dirty mackintosh (which is why I think we called him "Mackey"). We all thought he was dark skinned but one day it poured with rain. When the Monsoons came, it rained solidly for days at a time and the roads always got flooded in Calcutta. Mackey was wading through the flooded streets and we saw that his legs and feet were white and his hair, which the rain had washed, was light brown. The kids in the street used to make up stories about Mackey being a kidnapper and used to run a mile when they saw him. I often wondered about him. It turned out he was a Scot – we never knew what made him become a tramp and live on the streets like he did.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta 1941-2
(source: page 14 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

 

No love lost between any Britisher and any Indian

It was quite evident there was no love lost between any Britisher and any Indian. Indians showed a sullen resentment of anything British. I couldn't blame them. All the time, I felt good that Indians had the impression that Americans were there to help them achieve their goals, even though, then, I had no idea what the goals were.

Generally, I'd say the Indians simply tolerated the British. Indians were, almost without exception, quite friendly to an American. It made us feel good, we felt accepted.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

 

The British Caste System

Brilish society in India, over the decades, had evolved peculiar snobberies of its, own, borrowing (no doubt subconsciously) from the Hindu caste system, and creating distinctions undreamed of 'at home'. Civilians, in the covenanted Government services, especially the ICS, became in effect Brahmins, calmly conscious of superiority over all the others. And Army officers assumed a stand-offish Kshatriya mien. These wo constituted the topmost British castes... Oddest probably, however, was the caste cleavage within the business community itself, You'd find it in most of the big cities, but specially evident in Calcutta, There, to be in 'commerce', gave vastly more status than 'trade'. The latter was thought degrading. It made a really low level Vaisya out of you … Luckily a news papaermajn, anyway if on The Statesman's staff and a friendly sort, could wiggle through most of the indigenous British caste-structure without much annoying anyone. He was technically a puzzle to fit in, hard to classify. You had to admit that his job necessitated meeting people. Moreover, you couldn't be sure which of the Vaisya sub-castes he really belonged to, he darted bewilderingly between the two. If he wanted, he could say, and even prove, that he was in trade as well as commerce, for The Statesman—it was very unusual—enjoyed membership of both the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and the Calcutta Trades Association. Further, if on the editorial side, especially as a leader-writer, he carried with him a faintly Brahminical scholarly air. Added to which, in my case, was the baffling fact that I'd been a government official previously and got decorated for it; so mightn't I possibly, experts wondered, be no Vaisya at all but something grander? And a war was on, and caste distinctions were anyway fading somewhat, so I found before long that, if good-humoured about it, I could be almost as eccentric in Calcutta—though not in Delhi—as 1 liked, and get away with nearly anything.

Ian Stephens, editor of the Statesman. Calcutta, 1940s
(source: Ian Stephens: Monsoon Morning. London: Ernest Benn, 1966)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with : Ian Stephens 1966)

 

a rather lonely period of isolation

Had I realised it, this enforced and rather lonely period of isolation in a first class compartment was no bad introduction to the India of the Raj. The microcosmic, but not always so comfortable, life of the sahibs in their small Anglo-Indian world was one from which we sometimes ventured but inhibited by social convention, were seldom able to make any real contact with the people of the country.

John Rowntree, Officer Indian Forestry Service. Train to Calcutta, early 1940s

 (source pages 8  of John Rowntree: “A Chota Sahib. Memoirs of a Forest Officer.” Padstow: Tabb House, 1981.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the Estate of John Rowntree)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Scottish

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

St. Andrews Day Dinner

StuartScan019

Malcolm Moncrieff Stuart, I.C.S. (Indian Civil Service) Commissioner Dacca Division, Narayanganj, 194

(source: personal scrapbook kept by Malcolm Moncrieff Stuart O.B.E., I.C.S. seen on 20-Dec-2005 / Reproduced by courtesy of Mrs. Malcolm Moncrieff Stuart)

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

Addresses of Scottish Presbyterian Churches in 1940

Church of Scotland—76 Wellesley Street.
Sunday :—Morning Service and Sermon at 9-30;

Evening Service and Sermon at 6-30.

Church of Scotland (Missions)—76 Wellesley Street.
Sunday :In Tamil and Telugu—Morning Service at 8-30;
Evening Service and Sermon at 6-30.
In Hindi—Service and Sermon at 12-30 p.m.

Duff Church—127 Maniktala Street. In Bengali.
Sunday :—Morning Service at 9; Evening Service and Sermon at 6.

St. Andrew's Church—Dalhousie Square. Built 1815. Page 72.

 

(Source: John Barry: “Calcutta 1940”)

 

 

 

 

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In Chinatown

 

 

 

 

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          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

Addresses of a Chinese Association in 1940

Overseas Chinese Labour Association—33 Blackburn Lane.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 239 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

 

 

 

          _____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_______________________

 

Chinatown "off limits" to Americans

And Chinatown? It was not well known as a place to visit among American personnel. In fact, it may have been in the vast area of Calcutta that was declared, for some reason, "off limits" to Americans. I never questioned who set those limits, always feeling that they were established to keep us from going into "dangerous" sections. So, I missed that great opportunity to see what I now know was a very unique part of the old town.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

 

'There is such a nice Chinatown here in Calcutta,'

I met many Chinese who contrived to look exquisitely cool and unperturbed. During the last five years they had become inured to disaster and war was accepted as, a normal course of life. One Chinese pilot said he could not understand my mama for Chungking. 'There is such a nice Chinatown here in Calcutta,' he said, 'and the Chung Wah' restaurant is better and cheaper than any we have in Chungking. I am always glad to return here; it is like peacetime.' But I was in no mood to appreciate these advantages. He invited me to the Chinese South Physical Culture Club on Chandney Chowk Street and introduced me to some of his compatriots who played and sang the melodies I had not heard since leaving Peking. On the other hand I also saw refugees from Hong Kong and Burma, who lad barely survived their escape.

Harold Acton, RAF airforce officer. Calcutta, early 1940s.
(source: page 111-2 Harold Acton: More memoirs of an Aesthete. London Methuen, 1970)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Harold Acton)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Jewish Life

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

Addresses of Synagogues in 1940

Bethel Synagogue—26/1 Pollock Street.
Saturday :
Morning Prayers at 6-15; Evening at 3-30 and 5-45.
Other Days :—Morning Prayers at 5-30; Evening at 5.

Maghen David Synagogue—109 Canning Street.
Saturday :
Morning Prayers at 6-30; Evening at 4-30 and 5-45.
Other Days :
Morning Prayers at 6; Evening at 4-45.

Neveh Shalome Synagogue—9 Synagogue Street.
Saturday :—Morning Prayers ar 6; Evening at 4 and 6.
Other Days :—Morning Prayers, at 5-45; Evening at 4-45.

The Brahmo Samaj Church of the New Dispensation
(Bharatavarshiya Brahma Mandir)—95 Keshab Chunder Sen Street.
Sunday :Children's School, 7 a.m. Service and Sermon, 6 p.m.

 

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 219 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

 

 

 

Addresses of Jewish Schools in 1940

Eliat Meyer Free School and Talmud Torah—50 Bow Baiar Street. Phone, B.B. 539.

Jewish Girls' and Boys' Secondary School—8A & 8B Pollock Street

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 215-217  of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_______________________

 

Jews

Yes, there were Jewish soldiers in our unit. In fact, the Milton Links about whom you query, was Jewish. He was one of my best friends. We started out in the military together, but he came from California and me from Missouri. We met in basic training. He was a photo enthusiast and so was I. In civilian life he owned and operated a successful luggage store in San Francisco. He was a great guy and I visited in his home after the war several times. But, like a lot of our guys, he is no longer with us. I miss him a lot.

I don't think our Jewish fellows had much contact with the Jewish community in Calcutta. I doubt they even knew about it. Milt sure never mentioned it. Of course, he was married at the time, so wasn't much interested in Calcutta Jewish gals.

None of our crew married Calcutta girls of any nationalty or religion.

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

(source: a series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August 2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley)

 

“Daddy, are you G-d?”

 

“My own introduction to religion starts at home with celebrating the Sabbath, looking up at daddy while he prayed at the head of the table before the Friday evening dinner. I saw him in an awesome new role, one that raised him above us ordinary mortals. It was only three decades later, standing together wih my own family around the table during Friday evening prayers that I heard my own childhood feeling put into words; it was when, during a moment's silence, my youngest son looked up at his father and said:

'Daddy, are you G-d?'”

 

Sally Salomon, Daughter of a Jewish family in Calcutta. Calcutta, mid 1930s
(source: Sally Solomon: “Feasting and Fasting” on http://www.babylonjewry.org.il/research/nehardea/9/m8.htm on 25.10.2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Sally Solomon)

 

 

 

My first visit to the Neveh Shalome

 

“As a child, my first experience of going to the synagogue in walking with the rest of the family out of 81/8 Bentinck Street to a building not far from home. We are all dressed nicely, particularly my father who is wearing a suit and felt hat. He holds a small black book in his hand and remains silent and preoccupied until we reach the gates of Neveh Shalome Synagogue, the Abode of Peace. We separate here. Daddy and my brother go into a downstairs hall while mummy and my sisters climb to an upper floor, looking down on the assembled men from a gallery. A hum of prayers rises upwards as we open our own books and cover our heads to join in the service.

 

Neveh Shalome, the smallest and oldest of the three synagogues, had echoed with the voices of my great-great-great grandfather and the early Jewish settlers since the year 1826. A century later found the new Neveh Shalome risen from the ashes of the old after years of legal wrangling and jostling for survival with its grand rival next door - the Magen David Synagogue, as large and resplendent as ours was small and unassuming. I remember its quiet atmosphere and felt a sense of belonging within its walls from that very first day.”

 

Sally Salomon, Daughter of a Jewish family in Calcutta. Calcutta, mid 1930s
(source: Sally Solomon: “Feasting and Fasting” on http://www.babylonjewry.org.il/research/nehardea/9/m8.htm on 25.10.2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Sally Solomon)

 

 

 

Yom Kipur

 

“Today, no matter where I am, I recall little details of observance, or some aspects of family life during the festivals and Holy Days which still have the power to evoke tears, or laughter, or both. Like, for instance, the memory of a distant Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when Jews ask the Almighty to forgive their sins.

 

It was in the mid-thirties, and I had just joined the ranks of those fasting full day, basking in the importance of my thirteen years; but there were also disadvantages, as I was about to learn. The four of us had walked back home with daddy after the service on Yom Kippur Eve. It was a distance of almost two miles to Tottee Lane and we arrived hungry and thirsty, the thought of food and drink very vivid in our minds. In preparation for the long fast ahead we retired straight away and were lying down quietly, when an agonized, whispered cry from my sister Rahmoo's bed made us all sit up.

 

'I drank water! I drank water!,' she repeated over and over again, all the while wringing her hands. We choked with suppressed laughter, realizing what had happened. The nightly drink of water, an ingrained habit, had been repeated by mistake. 'Shh....shhhh... it does not matter,' we assured her, fearful lest my father should hear. But on Yom Kippur there was always that awesome feeling that not only daddy, but Heaven itself would frown on any infringement of penitential practice.

 

In our community, fasting on Yom Kippur was something every Jewish adult did, or tried to do. Not keeping a kosher home, or observing the Sabbath, did not seem quite as sinful as not fasting on Yom Kippur. Was this true? I agonized. Was not the Sabbath the most sacred festival in the history of our people? Eventually I came to the conclusion that Yom Kippur is very important because on that day each person communicates directly with his Maker. The Sabbath is for us all; Yom Kippur is more individual and, if observed, brings a sense of deliverance to the suppliant.

 

On looking back over the years, it is very easy to remember the sequence of events ushering in that Holy Day. It started with the night before the Eve when white hens were whirled over the heads of all female family members and white cockerels over the heads of my father and brother Sam. The shohet who performed kapparah prayed that the birds took on our identity, and therefore our sins, before they were sacrificed.

 

On the morning of Yom Kippur Eve we had a brunch of grilled lamb kebabs and a cup of early afternoon tea. In this way, we were able to eat an enormous meal of rice, chicken and vegetables followed by fruit, and the final drink of water before the trip to the synagogue at about 3.30 p.m. For this journey, the gharry had been ordered well in advance because arrival at the synagogue was essential before sunset. Heaven forbid that we ride after, because the horses' hooves, making contact with the tarred roads and producing sparks, was tantamount to breaking the Sabbath. By this same line of thinking, light switches could not be operated once the fast was under way, so the Muslim servant was asked to wait for us to return from the syangogue and do the needful until we retired.

 

The service on Yom Kippur Eve was one of the most well-attended throughout the year. As the wailing lilt of Lekha Eli set the mood of sorrow and repentance, I remember being dazzled by the heraldic appearance of the great hall. Velvet curtains in rich, dark hues and embroidered in gold and silver, some with Hebrew lettering, hung in rows from the ladies' gallery. Glittering chandeliers shone down on the men, wearing different colored kippas and swathed in prayer shawls, chanting and responding in unison to the rabbi, a veritable king on the central dias. The atmosphere was charged with excitement, and, after hearing the Kol Nidre I went home happy to be a Jew.

 

In contrast, attendance on the following morning was perceptibly lower and the mood more grave. The color white was predominant, from the canvas shoes worn by the men, to the shroud-like gowns and head scarves worn by some of the traditionally dressed women.

I remember looking down from the gallery during the most poignant sections of the service when some men went up to the platform at the far end and held out their shawls in front of them, arms extended.

'They look like ghosts, who are they, mummy?' I whispered, feeling afraid.

'The Cohanim, descendants of the Biblical priests.'

I watched, fascinated, as the tzitzis, fringes, of thier shawls, swung as they turned from side to side in incantation. The hall reverberated with wailing, and most of the congregation were in tears.”

 

Sally Salomon, Daughter of a Jewish family in Calcutta. Calcutta, mid 1930s
(source: Sally Solomon: “Feasting and Fasting” on http://www.babylonjewry.org.il/research/nehardea/9/m8.htm on 25.10.2001)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Sally Solomon)

 

 

 

 

 

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Parsees

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

 

The Parsees

The Parsees.   Almost everywhere in India, but especially around Bombay you will see the Parsee merchant, distinguished often by his shiny black hat. The Parsees are a relatively small group numbering only about 100,000. They came from Persia originally and follow Zoroaster as their prophet. Usually Parsees are well-to-do, mostly business and professional men. Some of them are among the greatest industrialists in India. The Tata family, which built the huge steel works at Jamshedpur, the largest in the British Empire, are Parsees.

 

(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)

 

 

Address of a Parsee Dentist in 1940

Parsee Dental Hall—8 Esplanade East. Phone, Cal. 2702.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 252 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_______________________

 

 

 

I was a young Indian (Parsi) girl living in Calcutta

I was a young Indian (Parsi) girl living in Calcutta during World War II. My family consisted of my mother, father and three daughters, I was the eldest daughter. My brother had not been born yet. We lived in an apartment block in Mission Row, not far from Dalhousie Square — the spot where the “Black Hole of Calcutta” was supposed to have taken place — though Indian historians deny this episode.

My neighbours consisted of a Chinese family who had trekked from Burma, an Anglo-Indian family - Mr and Mrs Carter, a Portuguese family — Mr and Mrs Coelho and their 4 sons, and 2 Baghdad Jewish families — the Nahoums and the Manassehs.

My family lived on the top floor and from our veranda (whose doors and windows had been plastered with black and brown paper, as protection from broken glass during the air raid), I could see the steeple and weather cock of St Andrews Church, and in the background Howrah Bridge, the life-line of Calcutta connecting the 2 sides of the mighty Hooghly River.

Katyun Randhawa, a young Indian (Parsi) girl, Calcutta, 1942-3

 

(source: A5756150 The bombing of Calcutta by the Japanese Edited 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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Armenians

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

 

Address of The Armenian Club in 1940

Armenian Club—21 Galstaun Mansions. Phone, Cal. 2504.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 241 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

Addresses of Jewish Schools in 1940

Davidian Girls' School—1A Ashutosh Mukerjee Road. Phone, P.K, 1531. Page 163.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 215  of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

 

Addresses of The Armenian college in the 1940s

Armenian College—4 Kyd Street- Phone, Cal. 1511. Page 133.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 213 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

Armenian College—Free School Street.

(Source: Contributors)

 

Addresses of Armenian  Churches in 1940

Armenian Holy Church of Nazareth—2 Armenian Street. Page 129.

St. Gregory The llluminator's Chapel—11/6 North Range, Park Circus. Page 90.

The Holy Trinity Chapel—No. 2 Tangra Rd. South. Erected in 1867.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 218 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

THE ARMENIAN HOLY CHURCH OF NAZARETH

Admission :—Open daily from 5-30 a.m. to 6-30 p.m.

Services:Sundays—Matins 7 a.m. High Mass, Sermon and Holy Communion 8-30 a.m.

Evensong (at St. Gregory's Chapel, Park Circus) 5-30 p.m.

Saturdays—Matins 6 a.m. High Mass and Holy Communion 7 a.m. Evensong 5-30 p.m.

Other Weekdays—Matins 5-30 a.m. Evensong 5-30 p.m.

Having the distinction of being the oldest church in Calcutta, this sacred edifice was erected in 1724 by public subscription, through the praiseworthy efforts of Agha Nazar, on the site of an old Armenian cemetery, after the design of Leon Govond, an Armenian architect from Persia.

The church is centrally situated in the business quarter of the city, and is reached from Lower Chitpore Road by way of Armenian Street, from Clive Row by way of Old China Bazar Street, and from Clive Street by way of Bonfield Lane. The last-named route leads right to the centre gate.

There are three gates to the church, one at No. 2 Armenian Street, another at No. 119 Old China Bazar Street and the third at the Kangrapatty end of Old China Bazar Street. Entering by the last-named gate, we step on to a boarded footpath.  A covered passage leads the way to the vestibule, directly upon which is reared the steeple, accommodating the clock tower and the belfry. A copper plate, high above the entrance to the vestibule, records that the steeple, which was presented by Agha Manuel Hazarmull, was erected in 1734, but it was not until 1792 that it was adorned with a handsome, three-dialled clock, through the generosity of Agha Catchick Arrakiel.

The floor of the vestibule, as well as that of the churchyard, is closely paved with tombstones, most of which are inscribed in Armenian, many in English and Armenian and a few in English only. To the left of the vestibule, detached from the church, is the Parochial-building, on the ground floor of which is located the Vestry Office, where the Committee members hold their meetings and the Wardens of the church attend to their responsible duties.

From the vestibule we enter the church, paved with marble. On the left is a circular staircase leading to the gallery overhead, generally used by the College boys, and let into the walls are tablets commemorating benefactors. The two tablets, similiar in design, on either side of the altar, are erected, one to the memory of Thaddeus Mesrope Thaddeus (1856-1927) and the other as a tribute to Sir Paul Catchick Chater, in appreciation of their munificent donations.

The main aisle leads between massive fluted pillars and polished pews to the Chancel, on the right of which is the organ and in the middle the choir. On the east, from the centre of the Sanctuary, rises the Holy Altar, impressive in the majestic simplicity of its design, and adorned with a Cross, Gospels and Twelve Candlesticks, symbolic of the Divine Lord and His Apostles. The Altarpiece, consisting of three oil paintings by A. E. Harris, representing "The Holy Trinity", "The Lord's Supper" and "The Enshrouding of Our Lord", was presented in 1901, in loving memory of Carapiet and Hossanah Balthazar by their children. The side altars over the sacristies were erected in 1763 and dedicated, one to St. Gregory the Illuminator, and the other to the Apostles Peter and Paul, in memory of their namesakes the brothers Agha Kerikore and Agha Petrus, the sons of Aratoon of old Eravan.

A door from the sacristy beneath the altar of the Apostles Peter and Paul, leads to the Baptistery, to which access can also be gained from the churchyard.

A brief history of the origin of the Armenians and their religion will be of interest here.

THE ORIGIN:—The founder of the Armenian nation was Haik, fourth in direct descent from Noah. The genealogical tree is as follows—Noah, Japhet, Gomer, Togarmah (Genesis X. 1,2,3.). Haik was the son of Togarmah; he founded the Haikaznian dynasty in 2111 B. C. and to this day the people in their language are called Hai and the country Hayastan after him. After Aram, the greatest warrior of the dynasty, who by his conquests became a terror to the neighbouring states these ancient people came to be called Aramians—Armenians, and their country Armenia, names surviving to the present day. This dynasty was overthrown by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C., and it was not until 15C B.C. that Arshack I founded the Arshakoonian dynasty The year 428 A.D., marked the fall of this dynasty, when the country was handed over to Bahram, the Persian King

In 859 A. D. Ashot I founded the Pacratoonian dynasty, which held sway till 1079, when it came to an end through treachery, and the country passed under Grecian rule. The following year, 1080 A.D., Ruben 1. founded the Rubenian dynasty, which was overthrown in 1373 by the Ameer of Egypt, who made the then reigning king, Leon VI, a prisoner.

After seven years captivity, King Leon was released through the mediation of King John of Spain. He then travelled through Europe, visiting Pope Urban VI, King John of Spain, Charles VI of France, Richard II of England and others, with the view to regaining his throne. His efforts met with no success, and he died broken-hearted in France, and was buried in the cemetery of St. Dennis near Paris. A tombstone covering his remains bears the following inscription in French :—

"Here lies the most noble and excellent Prince Leon of Lusignan, Sixth Latin King of the Kingdom of Armenia, who rendered his soul to God in Paris on the 29th of November, in the year of Grace 1393."

After the fall of the Rubenian dynasty, the history of die Armenians is one long record of appalling horrors. The Egyptians, the Tartars, the Persians and the Turks in turn massacred the people and devastated their country. In 1914, on the outbreak of the Great War, the Armenians rallied together, fought on the side of the Allies and in May 1918, once again set up the self-governing state of Armenia.

THEIR RELIGION:—The Armenians claim to be the first nation to have embraced Christianity. In the Gospel of St. John, Chapter XII, Verses 20, 21, we read:—

" And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast; The same came therefore to Philip which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus."

According to history, these were messengers from King Apcar of Armenia. During a visit to Persia, King Apcar had contracted leprosy, which disease physicians were unable to cure. Hearing of the wonderful miracles performed by Jesus, he sent messengers with a letter, expressing his belief in Jesus' Divinity and inviting Him to Armenia. One of these messengers was an artist who had instructions to draw Jesus portrait, but as, after repeated attempts, he failed to outline the Divine features, Jesus called for a napkin* which He held against His face and miraculously impressed His likeness on it, and this He made over to the messengers together with a letter beginning—

"Blessed is he who believes in Me without seeing Me, for it is written of Me that they that see Me shall not believe and they that have not seen Me shall believe and be saved,"

In 34 A. D. the Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew arrived in Armenia, preached the Gospel and converted the people. After the death of King Apcar, however, his descendants reverted to idolatry and persecuted the Christians.

At the close of the 3rd century A. D., when Constantine the Great embraced and introduced Christianity into his Empire, afterwards the Eastern Empire, St. Gregory the Illuminator, with King Terdat of Armenia, revived Christianity throughout the country, and the people have ever since clung to their faith, despite the horrors of massacres and persecutions.

* Records show that this priceless relic was kept in Edessa, then the capital of Armenia, till 944, when it was removed to Constantinople by the Emperor Romanus of Greece, and in the 14th century transferred to Genoa, Italy, where it is said to be preserved to this day

The Armenian Church is known as the Apostolic Holy Church of Armenia.  The Catholicos of All Armenians has his Holy See in Edgmiatzin—about several miles from Eravan, the capital of Armenia — built in  about 300 A.D.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 129-133 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

THE ARMENIAN COLLEGE

This Institution was founded in 1821, under the name of the Armenian Philanthropic Academy, by Messrs Astwasatoor Mooradkhan and Manatsakan Varden, who are appropriately commemorated by marble tablets in the College portico. 

In 1825, the Aratoon Koloos School, which was established in 1798 was incorporated with the College and in 1871 the College was affliated to the Calcutta University for the Entrance Examination, and recently to the Cambridge University for the Senior Cambridge Examination. In 1883 the College was removed from Old China

Bazar Street to No. 56 Free School Street, and in 1889, in order to meet the educational requirements of the period College Classes were started for preparing boys for this First Arts and the higher Examinations of the Calcutta University. It was then that the Institution came to be known as the Armenian College: these Classes were however, discontinued in 1891.

The College boys participate in all athletic game and pursuits, including boxing, and have earned a good reputation for themselves in the field of sport.

A marble tablet at the College main gate in 56 Free School Street, records that the famous novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray, was born in this building on the 18th July 1811.

At the south-east corner of the compound stands the College swimming bath. A marble tablet inside bear the inscription :—

"Erected and Presented to his Alma Mater by P. H. Crete, esq. For the use of the students of the Armenian College, 1930.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source page 133 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

Davidian Girls' Day School

Entering Ashutosh Mukerjee Road, we note odd numbers on the left, even numbers on the right. At No. 1A is the Davidian Girls' Day School.

This Institution was founded in 1922, by the late Mr. David Aviet David, an Armenian philanthropist, where for some time children of all denominations were admitted and educated free of charge. Recently, however, the name was changed to the Davidian Girls' Day School and its pupils restricted to those of the Armenian community. At present a large number of Armenian girls and young boys are being educated, in English and Armenian, entirely free of charge. It is understood that the Institution will be made into the Davidian Girls' Boarding School from 1940.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 163 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Greeks

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

 

Addresses of Greek Businesses in 1940

Ralli Brothers. Ltd. Jute and Gunny and Seed Merchants, etc.— 16 Hare Street. Phone, Cal. 5420.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 234 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

Addresses of the Greek Church in 1940

Greek Church—At the corner of Russa Road and Library Road.
Sundays :—Service at 9 a.m.

 

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 218 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Japanese

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

Address of a Japanese Dentist in 1940

Nippon Dental Surgery (Dr. T. Watanabe, D.D.S.)—20 Park Street. Phone Cal, 3518.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 252 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

Address of a Japanese Primary School in 1940

Japanese Primary School—8A Lansdowne Road. Phone, P.K. 497.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 216 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

Addresses of Japanese Consulate Offices in 1940

Japan—5 & 6 Esplanade Mansions. Phone, Cal. 4041.

            25/'l Ballygunge Circular Road. Phone, P.K. 582.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 236 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

Addresses of Japanese Businesses in 1940

Yokohama Specie Bank, Ltd.—102/1 Clive Street. Phe., Cal. 5211.

Japan Cotton Trading Co., Ltd. Importers of cotton piece goods and silk yarn—15 Clive Street. Phone, Cal. 7000.

Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha, Ltd. Agents, for Steamship Companies135 Canning Street. Phone, Cal. 1860.

Mitsui Bussan Kaisha, Ltd. Merchants and Agents for Gunny Jute Presses, etc.—100 Clive Street. Phone, Cal, 5000.

Nippon Yusen Kaisha. Merchants and Agents for Japanese Steamship Companies—2/3 Clive Row. Phone, Cal. 2036.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 231-234 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

Addresses of Japanese Clubs in 1940

Nippon Club—1 Harrington Street. Phone, P.K. 461.

Nippon Yusen Kaisha Seaman's Club—28 Circular Garden Reach Road. Phone, South 1341.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 241-242 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_______________________

 

 

it was quite suddenly closed down

In 1942, the war came to us in Calcutta. I was seven years old and for us it was both our exciting and a worrying time. I used to have my hair cut regularly at a Japanese hair dressing salon until it was quite suddenly closed down. There were other Japanese shops and offices that became transformed into Indian or Anglo-Indian businesses over night.

Ron M. Walker, 7 year old boy, Calcutta, 1942

 

(source: A2780534 My Wartime Childhood in Calcutta, India 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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Germans

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

 

Address of the German Consulate 1939

Consulate General of Germany – 34 Park Street  Phone Cal. ???? (closed sept 1939)

Consul General: Count von Podewils-Duernitz

Vice Consuls: Baron O. von Richthofen, Dr. W. Tausch

Commercial attaché C.R. Rasmuss

(source pages 231-234  of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

 

Addresses of German Businesses in 1940

Allianz und Stuttgarter Life Insurance Bank, Ltd.— 4 Esplanade East, Phone, Cal, 3337.

A. E. G. India Electric Co., Ltd. Electrical Engineers and Contractors for electrical goods and appliances—Avenue House, Chowringhee Square. Phone, Cal, 5763.

Krupp Indian Trading Co., Ltd. Railway equipment and locomotives—22 Canning Street. Phone, Cal. 3430.

Siemens (India) Ltd. Manufacturers of electrical goods—26 Central Avenue. Phons.Cal.4891.

 

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 231-234  of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

Address of a German Emigree Dentist in 1940

Doctor, Dr. P.M., D.M.D.—1B Little Russell Street, Phe., P.K. 10.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 252 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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