Sunday, October 26, 2008

sahibs who loved india

Continuing my time-honored tradition of reviewing books that I haven't read....

What's up with the title of this one? Sahibs Who Loved India. Isn't that like White Guys Who Loved Jazz?

Why should we care about these guys. OK, I get it that there are some cracking adventures from the Raj era, when plucky young British chaps would dress up like natives and darken their faces with boot polish to go undercover on the frontier (and whatnot). But shouldn't that "Foreign Devils on the Silk Road" type stuff be strictly for British consumption?

And if it's really so normal, how come there aren't any titles like Americans Who Loved Russia or Africans Who Loved America?

Are Indians really so interested in these elusive sahibs? And, if so, why? Wasn't it the sahibs who first presented the idea that India was crowded, dirty, and cultureless? I mean, that is, before they "discovered" Buddhism and all that stuff that they are meant to have done?

1 comment:

cipher said...

Well, Indians are more interested in mem-sahibs