Colonial India & The North-West Frontier (1 Viewer)

[4th Hussar]

Randy,
Just looking at your vintage illustrations I am reminded of how well the colonizers lived and how poorly most of the colonized fared. It is no wonder that the Indians wanted the Brits gone...............

 

[glossman]

Randy,

Here is another link for an article on the Howdah Rifle used in Tiger Hunting by the Arms' Collectors Association of Northern Territory (Australia):

http://www.acant.org.au/Articles/HowdahRifle.html

Rgds, Raymond.

 

[PolarBear]

Randy,

Here is another link for an article on the Howdah Rifle used in Tiger Hunting by the Arms' Collectors Association of Northern Territory (Australia):

http://www.acant.org.au/Articles/HowdahRifle.html

Rgds, Raymond.

Raymond

Thank you for your excellent input and the great links--keep them coming!
I appreciate your adding to this thread.

Randy

 

[PolarBear]

"Life in Southern India: 1) Going to a jungle picnic: a short cut down the nullah; 2) An evening canoeing on a Travancore River," from the Illustrated London News, c.1877

Victorian Brits of the Raj exploring the geography of their 'home' away from England with the help of Indian boatmen.

nullah= a watercourse
Tranvancore= a princely state in India under the British Raj

 

[PolarBear]

Milk-Women in the Camp

1864 Illustrated London News

A post-Mutiny British Army camp with soldiers wearing havelocks being refreshed with glasses of milk provided by Indian camp followers.

have·lock (hāv'lŏk', -lək) Pronunciation Key
n. A cloth covering for a cap, having a flap to cover and protect the back of the neck.
[After Sir Henry Havelock (1795-1857), British soldier.]

Major-General Sir Henry Havelock, KCB (5 April 1795 – 29 November 1857) was a British general who is particularly associated with India. He was noted for his recapture of Cawnpore from rebels during Indian Rebellion of 1857.


Wm. Britains Victoria Cross Indian Mutiny series includes a set of the 53rd Regt. who stormed the Secundra Bagh in Lucknow wearing havelocks on their caps.

 

[PolarBear]

Native Cavalry Tent-Pegging in Sections

Illustrated London News 1890

From a Tent-pegging website:


"Tent-pegging is one of the most popular equestrian sports and was particularly popular in the Indian sub-continent till the post war period. Although there is difference of opinion as to how and where it started, it is almost certain that tent-pegging is a sport of Asian Origin. One source dates it back to the invasion of India by Alexander the Great in 326 B.C. which lends credence to the belief that the sport originated in the North Western province of India and Afghanistan through where Alexander had entered India. The cavalry soldiers of Alexander were believed to have used tent-pegging as a battle tactics against the elephants in the army of the Indian King Porus, who fought bravely against the invaders, lost the battle, but by virtue of his heroic demeanour , charmed Alexander, who returned to Porus his kingdom and made him his friend. There is also a belief that the sport originated with the horse-mounted soldiers charging enemy camps at the crack of dawn removing the pegs which held the tents in place, with the tips of their sharp spears.

But most equestrian authorities are of the opinion that tent-pegging originated in India in the middle ages in the battle fields as a tactics used by the horsed cavalry against elephant mounted troops. The soldiers discovered that the best way to make the elephants ineffective was to attack them on their toe nails with sharp spears from the back of the galloping horse. In order to perfect this technique, the cavalry started the practice of tent-pegging which eventually turned into the modern sport. Tent-pegging is now a popular equestrian sport in many countries around the world."

The film Lives of a Bengal Lancer(1935) includes a tent-pegging scene featuring Gary Cooper and the other principals.

 

[PolarBear]

Tent-Pegging Today in Pakistan

 

[PolarBear]

Tent-pegging has definite carry over skills to the sport of polo which became popular in 19th C India under the Raj. Wm. Hocker has created a set portraying an Anglo-Indian polo match. The members of both British and native Indian cavalry units were frequent participants of the sport in their off-duty hours.

 

[PolarBear]

"The Civil Lines"

This is the name given to the areas in Anglo-India set aside for the British officials of the Raj and their families. The bungalows lining the street are typical of their residences. The photograph shown here is another still from David Lean's A Passage to India.

 

[PolarBear]

Cabinet Photograph of British Cavalry Officer
Mozufferpore, India
c 1890's


The photo was taken by a British photographer working in India.

Cabinet Prints were introduced in 1866. They were popular until the early 20th century - more popular than cartes de visite by the 1890s. Cabinet prints were similar to cartes de visite, but larger, consisting of prints mounted on trade cards.

 

[PolarBear]

"Deja-Vu All Over Again"

THEN 1919: An Afridi Tribesman sniper fires down upon British troops from a vantage point in the Hindu Kush mountains. Despite the primitive condition of their weapons, many Afridi tribesman were excellent shots.

 

[PolarBear]

NOW 2008: Afghanistan Pakistan Border Outpost - Taliban fighters man an outpost overlooking the mountain-fringed tribal region of the North-West Frontier.

 

[PolarBear]

Camp Scene, Jellabad 1878
by John Burke

"Photograph of Indian and Afridi soldiers taken by John Burke in 1878. The Afridi figure in the centre is posed in the act of aiming his jezail, a long and heavy Afghan musket. The Afridis were a powerful, independent tribe inhabiting the Peshawar border of the North West Frontier Province. They had a reputation for being first rate soldiers and particularly good skirmishers. The power of the British army along the frontier of its Indian Empire owed much to the courage and loyalty of the native soldiers who formed such a significant part of it. Burke, the most intrepid of the photographers active in Victorian India, accompanied nearly all of the British military campaigns of this period, but is best known for his photography during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (1878-80). He accompanied the Peshawar Valley Field Force during the two-year campaign and worked steadily in the hostile environment of Afghanistan and the North West Frontier Province (Pakistan), the scene of the military operations. Burke's photographs include many of the people of Afghanistan, and he is also credited with photographing the many darbars that took place with Afghan chiefs which led to the uneasy peace treaties characteristic of the campaign. His Afghan expedition produced an important visual document of the region where strategies of the Great Game were played out." British Library

 

[PolarBear]

Wm. Hocker Toy Soldiers

Afridis & The North-West Frontier

 

[PolarBear]

Then:
Kabul Police 1879
Photo By John Burke

"Photograph of Afghan policemen sporting long-barelled rifles, taken in Kabul, Afghanistan, by John Burke, 1879-80. Burke accompanied the British army into Afghanistan in 1878 and worked steadily in the hostile environment of Afghanistan and the North West Frontier Province, recording military and topographical scenes as well as the peoples of the country during the Second Afghan War (1878-80). Burke also photographed many darbars or meetings that took place between British combat leaders and Afghan chiefs which led to the uneasy peace treaties characteristic of the campaign." British Library

 

[PolarBear]

Now:
Afghan National Police, Kabul 2009

 

[PolarBear]

The Indian Army on Campaign: 1890s (South Africa)

During the Raj, the British made extensive use of Indian army units to bolster their own forces in colonial possessions outside India. Here is an illustration of a Sikh Sepoy on post at Fort Johnson in Nyasaland (South Africa) in 1896. This painting clearly shows off his kit and his Model 1867, .577 caliber, Snider-Enfield three-band infantry rifle with the Model 1853 bayonet. The uniform style is reminiscent of those worn by 'Zouave' units throughout the 19th Century in various nations around the world.

 

[PolarBear]

Mighty Python In India

A group of Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders pose with a good-sized local python and two Indian serving boys sometime prior to WWI.

 

[PolarBear]

A Woman of the Raj c.1880s

A young woman in a studio cabinet style portrait. Most likely a member of the European community living on the Indian subcontinent during the reign of Queen Victoria. Frey & Rahn, the photographers are Swiss names so it is possible she is not English.

 

[PolarBear]

'Coffee' and the Raj

"Camp Coffee is a Scottish food product, which began production in 1876 by Paterson & Sons Ltd. in a plant on Charlotte St, Glasgow. Camp Coffee is a glutinous brown substance which consists of water, sugar, 4% coffee essence, and 26% chicory essence. This is generally used as a substitute for coffee, by mixing with warm milk in much the same way as cocoa. Legend has it that it was originally developed as a method of brewing coffee quickly for military purposes." -Wikipedia


This product is of interest for our thread as an example of the use of Anglo-Indian military imagery from the Raj in both its labeling and advertising posters. The label on the bottle has always featured a Highland Officer and a Sikh soldier from the era of the Raj. The pose of the Sikh has been revised over the years to lessen the original Imperial connotations of the Sikh portrayed in the role of servant.

Here is the 19th C version showing the Sikh serving Camp Coffee to the officer: