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Inspiring stories from colonial past
Highlights
With a fresh wave of thinking, author and columnist, V Raghunathan co-authored a book titled ‘Beyond the Call of Duty’ with Veena Prasad. The book chronicles the lives of well-intentioned Britishers who paved the road to shaping India. The book is an attempt to revive the stories and to draw attention to their work ethics.
When it comes to opinions on the British, people are often divided. While some blame the British for plundering India, others are thankful that there is English and other facilities introduced in the country because of them. V Raghunathan along with Veena Prasad chronicled the lives of some well-intentioned British in the book ‘Beyond the Call of Duty’
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With a fresh wave of thinking, author and columnist, V Raghunathan co-authored a book titled ‘Beyond the Call of Duty’ with Veena Prasad. The book chronicles the lives of well-intentioned Britishers who paved the road to shaping India. The book is an attempt to revive the stories and to draw attention to their work ethics.
The book dedicates a chapter each to a dozen individuals’ life and work. Excerpts from the interview of V Raghunathan:
What was your inspiration to write this book?
I only have one life. So when I realised that there were many unheard of Britishers who did something great for India and Indians. I knew I had to write this book. Nobody can celebrate colonialists because they ruled over us. But that doesn’t mean every one of them was terrible. This book has nothing about colonialism but talks about the inspiring stories during the colonial period.
Can you name a few of the men mentioned in this book?
Sure, there’s William Jones, W H Sleeman, James Prinsep and Sir Arthur Cotton, of course. Most of them worked for the Indians and have been forgotten, except Sir Arthur Cotton who is well-known in the Godavari belts. All of them went beyond their duty at the time. If their job was in the field of science, they went beyond their job description and devoted themselves to something that will benefit India.
How did you get the thought about researching them and writing a whole book?
I was inspired and motivated to write on this topic by Late N J Yasaswy, (founder of ICFAI Group) on frequent visits to his home and over many discussions with him.
What is the thing that strikes you most about these people?
These are truly inspirational stories. At a time when even a letter would take six months to reach their home; they found deep wells of inspiration in this foreign land. They did not do things for rewards but for passion. For example, Dr Archibald Campbell, a surgeon, envisioned that the climate in Darjeeling is similar to that of China, so he planted the first tea sapling in Darjeeling.
Today, Darjeeling tea is world-famous. Some of them from the East India Company even fought with their own bosses to prove that the people of India need to be able to rule themselves later, then mastered Sanskrit and translated Kalidasa’s works to English.
How long did it take to write the book?
The actual writing and researching took me one-and-a-half years though it took longer than that to finally publish it.
Researching on these people must have taken a lot of time and effort.
Yes, it did. All my research was done online, but I found online researching to be much easier. I refrained from reading books on the topics even when I was given some books.
By:Elita Enoch
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