Snipped from http://www.feldgrau.com/azadhind.html Indian Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht *** Agitation for the end of British rule in India had existed for decades prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. Therefore it was logical for the Axis powers during WWII to attempt to capitalize on anti-British sentiments by attempting to recruit a military force from disaffected Indian prisoners-of war captured while serving with the British Commonwealth forces in the North African campaign.*** (More) --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar

History of the Consulate General in Calcutta In 1851 the King of the German State of Prussia established an Honorary Consulate for British India in Calcutta. In 1857 the Honorary Consulate came under the North German Federation, the authority responsible for the foreign relations of the German states. In 1871 with the creation of the German Empire ("Reich") the Honorary Consulate in Calcutta became a mission of the German Empire. At that time, the Bengal Presidency and the Province of Audh, including the native states in this area were made up its consular district. In 1885, with Germany's overseas interests increasing over time, the Empire established a Consulate General, staffed with German career diplomats, in Calcutta. Since Calcutta was the capital and business centre of India, the Consulate General became Germany's official mission (de facto embassy) for British India and Ceylon. The Honorary Consulate, which continued, retained the limited function of representing the interests of the local German business community vis-à-vis the British business community and its civic organizations in Calcutta. Every year, from March through October, the German Consul General would follow the viceroy and his government to Simla. When the capital of British India was shifted from Calcutta to New Delhi in 1912, after the coronation of King George V, the German Consulate General, however, remained in Calcutta. [snip] http://www.kalkutta.diplo.de/Vertretung/kalkutta/en/02/Kanzlei__history/seite__history__consulate__general.html Also see: Bengal and Germany: Some Aspects of Political, Economic and Intellectual Encounter http://www.kalkutta.diplo.de/Vertretung/kalkutta/en/06/Bilaterale__Kulturbeziehungen/seite__bengal__n__germany__history.html --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar

British taking Tanga from the Germans Book Review: SEVENTEEN LETTERS TO TATHAM A WW1 SURGEON IN EAST AFRICA Author: Ann Chricton-Harris The book is based on the seventeen letters that the author's grandfather, a surgeon with the Indian Medical Service, wrote to his brother a judge in India during the British African Campaign in world war one. Dr. Temple Harris came over from India with 8,000 troops, mostly Indian soldiers, and landed on the Raskazone beach in Tanga. Photo and full text at: http://tanga-line.tripod.com/britishtakingtangafromthegermans/ --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar

It has been suggested to me that someone who travelled from England to Madeira in 1922 may have been on the first stage of a voyage to India. The ship she disembarked from at Madeira went on to Buenos Aires. I don't have information on shipping routes at that time but I would imagine that it would be an unusual route to take. Can anyone tell me if there were passenger services from Madeira to India in the 1920s? I imagine that if there were any they would be very infrequent. David

S. MUTHIAH on Generations of church service Monday, Apr 18, 2005 http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2005/04/18/stories/2005041800320300.htm BISHOP SUNDAR Clarke's recently published autobiography - Lead Us On - certainly made clear to me something I had long been getting confused about. And that was two eminent women who made a mark in Madras but whose names and accomplishments had links that often caused confusion. I refer to Prof. Samuel Satthianadhan's two wives, both women of letters. His first wife was Krupabai Kristy, a Maharashtrian, who was the first Indian woman to enrol at Madras Medical College. Ill health compelled her to quit medicine and she became a writer, to her credit being the first novel in English by an Indian. That novel was Kamala, A Story of Hindu Life published posthumously in 1894; she had died young, in 1892, after a life marked by ill health. Samuel Satthianadhan subsequently married a Kamala, Kamala Krishnamma, a Telugu, who was as committed to education as Krupabai had been to medicine. In 1898, she published her first book, a collection of short stories. Soon afterwards she became the first Indian woman to do her M.A. She then started India's first women's magazine, the Indian Ladies' Magazine. Like Krupabai, she too was well versed in Sanskrit language and literature. The Satthianadhans and the Clarkes, Bishop Sundar Clarke traces, descend from the first Indian to be ordained a Protestant pastor. C. Arumugam, born in 1698 in Cuddalore, was baptised in 1718 by Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg in Tranquebar and christened S. Aaron. The next year he became a catechist and on December 28, 1733, was ordained a pastor. Aaron had four daughters and one of them married G. Devasahayam Pillai. Their daughter married John Devasahayam who was ordained in 1896 the first Indian Anglican priest. The Devasahayams' daughter married William Thomas Satthianadhan, whom many felt should have become the first Indian Anglican Bishop. But those were still British times, and so Rev. Satthianadhan established a different precedent. In 1863, the Rev. W.T. Satthianadhan was assigned as presbyter of a Chintadripet church that had been established in 1843. He renamed it Zion Church and ministered to its ever-growing congregation for 30 years. He was succeeded by his son-in-law Rev. William Devapriyam Clarke. Rev. W.D. Clarke's son, Samuel Thomas Satthianadhan Clarke, followed in his father's footsteps, serving Zion Church from 1921 till 1944, three generations thereby having tended the Zion flock in an unbroken line for 81 years. Later, a fourth generation served as presbyter of Zion Church. This was the Rev. S.T.S. Clarke's son, the author of the autobiography, who was ordained a priest in Zion Church in 1954 and who served it in 1970-72. When the Rt. Rev. Sundar Clarke's son Sathanathan read the lesson in the Church a few years ago, the family's connection with it was over 100 years old. The line of priests in the family from the Rev. S. Aaron to the former Bishop of Madras, Sundar Clarke, is also an unbroken line that's over 170 years old. That's quite a record for one family - which also boasts of kin in the Adiseshiahs, Prabhakars and Hensmans. It was during Bishop Sundar Clarke's episcopacy (1974-89) that, I learnt from his book, there was a heated discussion before the exact number of votes needed for a two-thirds majority was polled, permitting the ordination of women. The matter then went to court and dragged on for a while, but in the end the Rev. Elizabeth Paul was ordained the first woman presbyter of the Church of South India. This and other events of his association with the Church are rather candidly narrated by the Rt. Rev. Sundar Clarke in his autobiography. ========================= --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar S. MUTHIAH

An Indian list, that is to say of children of Indian Armed Forces officers (not British officers of the Indian Army) would include a lot of achievers.Lots of beauty queens among them ! We're the best ! Mandeep, an Army brat and very proud I am of being one ! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar" <bosham@gmail.com> To: <india-british-raj@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2008 10:12 PM Subject: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] FAMOUS ARMY CHILDREN > FAMOUS ARMY CHILDREN > > Some well-known individuals were once British army > children; many among them were born in India. > > http://www.archhistory.co.uk/taca/famousarch.html > > --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar > Nagpur, India > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Radcliffe Award The Radcliffe Award was published on 17 August 1947, two days after the Independence after much speculation. It drew a dividing line between the two parts of Bengal. (From ''a study the process and consequence of the Bengal Partition and the making of the new Bengal border.) Partition Studies Saturday, August 16, 2008 http://bengalpartitionstudies.blogspot.com/2008/08/published-in-utkal-historical-research.html --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar

Roshan Doug speculates: India lingers lovingly over British past Aug 15 2008 http://www.birminghampost.net/comment/birmingham-columnists/more-columnists/2008/08/15/roshan-doug-india-lingers-lovingly-over-british-past-65233-21540797/ ---- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar

THE MAN WHO SURVIVED THE BONFIRE Book Review dated Friday, August 15, 2008 from http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080815/jsp/opinion/story_9678480.jsp# --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar ''The Collector of Worlds'' By Iliya Troyanov, Faber, Rs 495 Snippets from the review -- Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-90), British soldier, explorer, fencer, spy, polyglot, translator, ethnologist and writer could be considered a Ulysses incarnate, albeit sans the pomposity and smugness of the hero of Tennyson's poem. Posted to India in the service of the East India Company, Burton started his career as an officer in the lowest rank and then got himself expelled for writing a report on the homosexual brothels of Karachi that suggested that the writer had known the inmates in the Biblical sense. As his fellow countrymen in the most lucrative colony of the Empire either made inveterate villains of the natives or through "soft degrees/ Subdue[d] them to the useful and the good", Burton sought to become one of them. And this he did primarily by learning their languages. So started a lifetime of shape-shifting in which Burton's main tool would be his command over the idiom of the 'other'. He eventually mastered about 25 languages, besides numerous dialects. While the details of Burton's life - his unquenchable thirst for explorations, of countries and bodies, interest in the religions and literature of the Orient and life-long addiction to opium - consist the stuff that legends are made of, the man himself remains an enigma. Iliya Troyanov makes it clear at the outset that he does not aim to write Burton's biography. His novel "is intended as a personal approach to a mystery rather than as an attempt at definite revelation", he says. In effect, The Collector of Worlds is as much about Burton as about the people whose identities he tried to take on. Since The Collector of Worlds is a translation of the German Der Weltensammler, it is difficult to know whether the occasional oddities are in keeping with the illiterate natives' speech habits or if they have been introduced by the translator, William Hobson. Phrases like "your warm-hearted and compassionate feeling's hand" or "Leave it be" can be baffling if they are not accepted as deliberate on the part of the author. =================================

G'day folks, Vande Mataram

Vande Mataram to you too John. And Jai Hind, Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Jai Bharat too for good measure. Mandeep On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 5:40 PM, John FELTHAM <wulguru.wantok@gmail.com>wrote: > G'day folks, > > Vande Mataram > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

The Absent-Minded Imperialists: Empire, Society, and Culture in Britain By Bernard Porter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oxford University Press, USA Pages: 498 Publication Date: 2004-12-17 ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0198208545 ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780198208549 Hardcover -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A review: [Begin quote -] The British empire was a huge enterprise. To foreigners it more or less defined Britain in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its repercussions in the wider world are still with us today. It also had a great impact on Britain herself: for example, on her economy, security, population, and eating habits. One might expect this to have been reflected in her society and culture. Indeed, this has now become the conventional wisdom: that Britain was steeped in imperialism domestically, which affected (or infected) almost everything Britons thought, felt, and did. This is the first book to examine this assumption critically against the broader background of contemporary British society. Bernard Porter, a leading imperial historian, argues that the empire had a far lower profile in Britain than it did abroad. Many Britons could hardly have been aware of it for most of the nineteenth century and only a small number was in any way committed to it. Between these extremes opinions differed widely over what was even meant by the empire. This depended largely on class, and even when people were aware of the empire, it had no appreciable impact on their thinking about anything else. Indeed, the influence far more often went the other way, with perceptions of the empire being affected (or distorted) by more powerful domestic discourses. Although Britain was an imperial nation in this period, she was never a genuine imperial society. As well as showing how this was possible, Porter also discusses the implications of this attitude for Britain and her empire, and for the relationship between culture and imperialism more generally, bringing his study up to date by including the case of the present-day USA. [End quote] ------------------------------------- --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar

Hi Raj Listers, and a Happy Independence Day to all! Harshoo, thanks for your off-list message re Vandemataram — was able to surprise the folk at my mini-post office/lottery store (all Patels) with this and an error-free rendition of the Indian national anthem. Truly. Now I didn't say totally tuneful . . .! But it garnered some applause. Cheers, Claire B. August 15th, 2008

Dear Listers, On the eve of August 15, I am happy to bring these to your notice. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. India's National Anthem 'Jana Gana Mana' collectively played/sung by Gurus of Indian music, classical and popular, and created by the talented music director AR Rehman. The first half is instrumental and second is vocal. Listen to both. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftD3gDA-5S0&feature=related AR Rehman's 'Vande Mataram', the song that inspired the freedom struggle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRPpSgRqtRc Gandhiji's favorite bhajan (devotional hymn) 'Raghupati Raghava Rajaram'' from the film 'Gandhi my father'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz7S5IBmtAs Same rendered by the late D.V. Paluskar. He was the son of Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, who brought Indian Classical Music into the living room of the average Indian. DV was massively talented but died prematurely in 1954 when he was only 34. He is still heard... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDUV5-DbFE4&NR=1 Another of Gandhiji's favorite bhajans - this by the 15th century saint-poet Narsi Mehta - rendered by Lata Mangeshkar. Three generations of Indians have been brought up listening to her music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLbqn7hmOo0&NR=1 Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, August 14, 2008.

The newsreel announcing India's independence to US audiences 2 min 3 sec A New India August 15 1947 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYRY6hmcOns India Gains Independence - Rare Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5X7LzTrLYU&feature=related And this lavishly photographed write-up: Partition of India http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/aug2007/partition_india.html --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar

Andrew, This happens everywhere. Jawaharlal Nehru is almost forgotten in today's India. Many young people think that Indira Gandhi was Mahatma Gandhi's daughter! Yet a departure from this collective amnesia has recently brought Gandhi out of the shadows - and that through the unlikely route of Bollywood. 'Lage Raho Munna Bhai', a comedy starring the macho actor Sanjay Dutt has the hero, an underworld Don, triumph over his opponent. He does this through Satyagraha, taught to him by Gandhiji himself. (Gandhiji appears before him in person and only the Don can see and talk to him.) His reward is that he wins over his lady love, who is a true believer in Gandhian principles. This comedy was hugely successful and for a time Gandhiji's name was on everyone's lips. Since then, there has been a spate of movies with Gandhiji as a character. One of these was a serious and really good one called 'Gandhi, my father'. It is about the troubled life of one of Gandhiji's son, Harilal. He was a young man with normal ambitions to succeed in his life. Gandhi, the emerging leader of the masses, could not understand this and that gradually destroyed his son's life. He eventually became a cheat, a drunkard and even changed his religion for a while. All attempts of Gandhi to pull him back from the brink failed and Harilal died a destitute's death in a public hospital in Bombay, a few days after Gandhi's death. This is a little known but true story. Arvind Kolhatkar, Toronto, August 13, 2008.

A very long and quite fascinating critique. A reviewer of ''Folktales of Bengal'' (1883), the first collection of Bangla folktales by Rev. Lal Behari Day (1824-1894), wonders about Day's omissions. He says, ''(They) make us ponder - what's so unfolk about the colonial experience after all? Why does a collection of folktales from the late nineteenth century consciously evade references to the one hundred and twenty five years of colonial legacy? How can a late-Victorian collection of folktales of Bengal (which was in many ways the heart of the Empire in India) never breathe a word about its colonial present and past?''. And so, he goes on to add the legends about the ghosts of Warren Hastings, the Momiai-wala-Sahib, and the Dinapurwala Sahib, etc. http://www.literature-study-online.com/essays/bengali-folktales.html --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar

Hi Peter Many thanks. This has cleared up everything. It seemed too much of a coincidence that there could be two churches on the same street with the same name, but so it is. Alfred Vieyra. -----Original Message----- From: india-british-raj-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:india-british-raj-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Peter Bailey Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 5:25 AM To: india-british-raj@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ] Madraspatnam's first church Alfred asks: > This article by S. Muthiah refers to St. Mary's co-cathedral on Armenian > street in Chennai. Earlier on, there were two contributions referring to > 'The bells of St. Mary's' which talked about an Armenian church being > refurbished etc. Are these two different churches, or are they one and the > same? Anybody out there who could enlighten me? I have not yet read the article suggested by Hashawardhan but yes the Armenian Church and St. Mary's (RC Co-Cathedral) are different churches a stone's throw away from each other in Armenian Street, Chennai. Was either of them the first church in Madraspatnam? - It depends upon where Madraspatnam stretches to. There is no commonly accepted view as to its origin. Many say it was a fishing village at the mouth of the Cooum River which existed before the arrival, in the 16th century, of the Portuguese - who built churches all around the area! If it includes Fort St. George, then St. Mary's (Anglican) in the Fort predates the St. Mary's (RC) in Blacktown, now Georgetown, by many decades. There was originally a Catholic church within the Fort which was run by French Capuchin friars! After restitution of the Fort to the Company in 1748, the Company adopted a 'face-saving' stance of claiming that these French priests acted as spies for their compatriots leading to its capture in 1746. They threw out the Catholics who then established themselves at St. Mary's, Blacktown and St. Andrew's at Vepery. Good Hunting! Peter Bailey Chairman Families in British India Society www.fibis.org ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 3351 (20080813) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 3351 (20080813) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com

Alfred asks: > This article by S. Muthiah refers to St. Mary's co-cathedral on Armenian > street in Chennai. Earlier on, there were two contributions referring to > 'The bells of St. Mary's' which talked about an Armenian church being > refurbished etc. Are these two different churches, or are they one and the > same? Anybody out there who could enlighten me? I have not yet read the article suggested by Hashawardhan but yes the Armenian Church and St. Mary's (RC Co-Cathedral) are different churches a stone's throw away from each other in Armenian Street, Chennai. Was either of them the first church in Madraspatnam? - It depends upon where Madraspatnam stretches to. There is no commonly accepted view as to its origin. Many say it was a fishing village at the mouth of the Cooum River which existed before the arrival, in the 16th century, of the Portuguese - who built churches all around the area! If it includes Fort St. George, then St. Mary's (Anglican) in the Fort predates the St. Mary's (RC) in Blacktown, now Georgetown, by many decades. There was originally a Catholic church within the Fort which was run by French Capuchin friars! After restitution of the Fort to the Company in 1748, the Company adopted a 'face-saving' stance of claiming that these French priests acted as spies for their compatriots leading to its capture in 1746. They threw out the Catholics who then established themselves at St. Mary's, Blacktown and St. Andrew's at Vepery. Good Hunting! Peter Bailey Chairman Families in British India Society www.fibis.org

Hi all Does anyone know if there is an online, searchable BMD index for the Afghan Church a.k.a St. John the Evangelist in Colaba, Bombay? Regards Jonathan.