| The Indian Empire - a Short Review and some Hints for the use of Soldiers proceeding to India was published in 1917. It is a small book, 5x4 inches, so literally a pocket book that would fit into a knapsack. It was also cheap as well, retailing at sixpence, though for comparison one could buy 30 cigarettes for that price at the time. A pocket at the back holds a map produced by the War Office showing India and adjoining countries, though perhaps a little more of India and a little less of places like Mongolia would
have been useful. Thanks to a concerted push in the latter half of the 19th century, soldiers in World War One were considered the most literate generation to have fought, so there was a good chance the little booklet would have been widely read.
But a delicate balance had to be struck in what was written, because at the time of publication soldiers were proceeding from India, Indian soldiers that is, who had volunteered to fight in Europe and who were known as the Indian Expeditionary Force. (There seems to be no comparable booklet in Urdu or Hindi telling them what to expect when they got there.) So British soldiers were still needed in India, firstly to replace the Indian regiments sent abroad and secondly to support the numerous cantonments in the subcontinent and to keep an eye on the north-west Frontier. The booklet is comprehensive. Chapter Five for example covers ‘The Indian Soldier - popular errors regarding him - advantage of sympathy between the two races - mode of address - slaughter of cattle - offers of food - Indian officers - Class composition of units’.
Other chapters cover ‘The Fighting Classes’ because this was written at a time when the martial race theory was still current. Rajputs, Sikhs and Pathans were all martial, as were the gallant little Gurkhas, but not the dreamy, intellectual Bengalis. Civilians could be tricky. ‘Indians are, on the whole, a very excitable people, and all of them are liable to violent fits of anger or enthusiasm, in other words they “see red”. But it was best not to enrage a crowd of these excitable people. ‘If you are out by yourself or with one or two companions and you see trouble brewing, get away if you can.... if you have a gun with you never shoot towards or over the heads of natives in order to frighten them; it always makes matters worse.’ This was a lesson that General Dyer failed to learn two years later when his troops were ordered to open fire in the Jallianwala Bagh, leading to what is known today as the Amritsar Massacre.
Particular emphasis was placed on relations between British and Indian soldiers. These were not the officer classes, who would have had a broader education and quite likely relatives who had served in India. It was directed at raw lads who had joined up to fight the Germans and now, unaccountably, found themselves somewhere quite different. ‘If you want to speak to an Indian soldier, do not try any fancy terms of your own....if we use the word bhai (brother) to an Indian comrade we cannot go far wrong.’ (How comfortable, or uncomfortable both Indian and British soldiers may have felt with an imposed foreign sibling is not related. But this does echo the ma-bap relationship Indian soldiers are supposed to have felt towards their regiments.) These same British lads now found, for the first time in their lives, that they themselves had servants - cooks, sweepers, water-carriers, grooms and washermen. They were advised it was best not to beat their servants, because in most cases the latter had ‘neither the strength... nor the pluck to stand up to you’. ‘So, for every reason, keep your hands - and boots - off the natives.’ A fascinating glimpse at British India.
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