India and the Indians

Name: India and the Indians
Author: Edward Fenton Elwin

by Edward Fenton Elwin

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Language: en6,980 downloads on Project Gutenberg

Subjects

India India -- Social life and customs

In: History - Other·Archaeology & Anthropology·Religion/Spirituality

Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #27886.

About this book

The work is a sprawling ethnographic study by Edward F. Elwin, a long‑time resident of the Poona district, who sets out to correct “misconceptions” about India and its people. The opening passage frames the nation as a child being gently roused each morning, with the author insisting that the English have a duty to teach Indians prayer, hygiene and industry. From this didactic premise the book expands into a catalogue of observations, hospitality, architecture, labour, postal service, music, religion and countless other facets, each drawn from Elwin’s personal encounters and illustrated with photographs by his colleague Brother Arthur. The author promises a “miscellaneous” but carefully verified record of daily life, aiming to foster sympathy and responsible action toward the country he describes as “wide awake, but idle.”

Elwin writes in a earnest, Victorian‑era voice that blends missionary zeal with the observational tone of a colonial administrator. The prose is dense, often moralising, and reflects the paternalistic attitudes of early twentieth‑century British India. Readers who appreciate historical anthropology, the complexities of empire, and primary‑source snapshots of Indian customs will find this book rewarding, while those seeking a neutral or contemporary perspective on Indian society may be put off by its overtly prescriptive tone.

Who appears in India and the Indians

FelixYoung Indian boy, dark hair, thin frame, wearing a simple white dhoti and a faded cotton shirt, barefoot, early 1900s colonial setting
Edward F. ElwinBritish gentleman in his forties, trimmed moustache, wearing a dark Victorian frock coat, waistcoat, cravat, and a pith helmet, standing in an Indian courtyard
Brother ArthurMiddle‑aged missionary brother, clean‑shaven, spectacles, in a modest black cassock with a white collar, holding a camera, backdrop of Indian architecture

The opening · free to read

India is really waking up, but she is doing so in her own Indian way. For some years past it has been one of my daily duties to arouse an Indian boy, and I know exactly how an Indian wakes. It is a leisurely process. He slowly stretches his legs and rubs his eyes, and it is at least ten minutes before he can be said to be really wide awake. And every morning I have to say exactly the same thing: "Now remember, Felix, to say your prayers; then go and wash your hands and face, and then feed the pony." And if on any particular morning I were to leave this reminder unsaid, and Felix left any, or all of these duties, undone, and I were to ask him the reason, he would reply, "You did not tell me."

With India waking up, there never was a time when she stands more in need of some kindly person at her side to tell her what to do. She needs to be taught to say her prayers, because with the old religion gone and the True Faith dimly understood, India would be in the appalling condition of a great country without a religion. We need to tell her to wash her hands and face, because there are certain elementary matters of sanitation which must be attended to if India is ever to become a wholesome and prosperous country. And we have got to teach her how to work, because India wide awake, but idle, might easily become a source of great mischief.

Every Englishman who takes pleasure in the sense of Empire ought to realise that it brings with it great responsibilities, and therefore that every Englishman has a measure of responsibility towards India. We must be taking care that, if when she is wide awake she fails to fulfil her great vocation, at any rate she shall have no cause to utter against us the reproach, You never told me.

A better understanding of what India and the people who live in it are really like, seems to be the necessary preparation for sympathy and work of any sort connected with that country; and to help, in however small a degree, to bring about this end is the object of this book. I have had unusually favourable and varied opportunities for getting to know intimately the inner side of Indian life and character during a somewhat long residence in this country. The contents of the book are exceedingly miscellaneous because the daily experiences have been equally so. Everything that is told is the outcome of my own personal observations amongst a people to whom I am deeply attached, and I have taken the utmost pains to record nothing of which I was not sure, and to verify everything concerning which I was doubtful.