Servants of the Empire The Irish in Punjab 1881-1921

by O'Leary, Patrick

• ISBN13: 9780719083853
• ISBN10: 0719083850
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-10-01
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

Punjab, "the pride of British India," attracted the cream of the Indian Civil Service, many of the most influential of whom were Irish. Some of these men, along with Irish viceroys, were inspired by their Irish backgrounds to ensure security of tenure for the Punjabi peasant, besides developing vast irrigation schemes which resulted in the province becoming India's most affluent. But similar inspiration contributed to the severity of measures taken against Indian nationalist dissent, culminating in the Amritsar massacre which so catastrophically transformed politics on the sub-continent. Setting the experiences of Irish public servants in Punjab in the context of the Irish diaspora and of linked agrarian problems in Ireland and India, this book descrides the beneficial effects the Irish had on the prosperity of India's most volatile province. Alongside the baleful contribution of some towards a growing Indian antipathy towards British rule. Links are established between policies pursued by Irishmen of the Victorian era and current happenings on the Pakistan-Afghan border and in Punjab.

Author Biography

Patrick O'Leary is an independent scholar.

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. ix
List of maps	p. x
List of tables	p. xi
List of abbreviations	p. xii
General editor's introduction	p. xiii
Context
Introduction: the scattered Irish	p. 3
India and Punjab in the late nineteenth century	p. 14
The Indian public service	p. 24
Who were they?	p. 33
Straits Settlements, Malaya and Ceylon	p. 51
The frontier
Waziristan: warriors and administrators	p. 69
Pro-consul and the Viceroy	p. 83
Frontiersman and the diplomat	p. 94
Land and infrastructure
Land: the Irish dimension	p. 111
Canal colonies	p. 126
Louis Dane and land bills	p. 139
Irish engineers and Punjab's infrastructure	p. 152
Politics and society
Lansdowne and Fitzpatrick	p. 167
Punjab affairs are Simla affairs	p. 181
and O'Dwyer: conciliation and provocation	p. 195
Conclusions
Conclusions	p. 217
Appendix I	p. 228
Appendix II	p. 232
Bibliography	p. 234
Index	p. 243
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