Reviews for An Englishwoman in India

The average rating for An Englishwoman in India based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-10-12 00:00:00 Gary West In William Dalrymple's superb book on the Indian Rebellion of 1857, The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857, the most thoughtful of the British observers cited is Harriet Tytler, the young wife of Robert Tytler. Robert Tytler a veteran of the 38th Native Infantry and "an officer of the old school who was close to his sepoys, concerned for their well-being, and (like his wife) completely fluent in Hindustani." One telling incident from her memoirs: during the Second Anglo-Burmese War, Tytler's regiment had been ordered to cross the sea to Rangoon by Tytler's superior "a very obstinate Scotchman," according to Harriet. Tytler was horrified by the dilemma this posed to his sepoy soldiers since to cross the deep waters was forbidden to high cast Hindus. Harriet quoted her husband who protested the ruling, "What they should have done was to ask for volunteers...My husband said, 'I know my men will never go if ordered, but if the Government would only ask them to volunteer, they would go to a man.'" Tytler was ignored, the men refused to go by sea but said they would march overland. As punishment, the entire regiment was ordered to Dacca and in five months all but three had were either dead or hospitalized with illness. Commented Harriet, "it was most unChristianlike to wish these poor men, who had only upheld their religious rights, to go where they were to die like dogs." Tytler was acutely aware of the dissatisfaction spreading among the troops over the new Enfield rifles, whose grooved bore required heavily greased cartridges. The cartridges were wrapped in paper and the sepoys had to bite them open. Rumors, which were apparently correct, started to spread that the grease contained pork and beef fat (the one forbidden to Moslems, the other to Hindus). Despite protests by Tytler and other officers, little was done and the troops believed that it was a deliberate plot by the British to turn them into Christians. Harriet and Robert were avid photographers (I have to track down the archives that hold their collection). They were also among those garrisoned on the ridge above Delhi during the siege of 1857 and saw the final fall of the great city. From the quotes in Dalrymple's book, they were both sensitive, well informed witnesses and I'm looking forward to reading more.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-07-14 00:00:00 Seamus Obrien Harriet Tytler may look like a prim little Victorian lady in her photograph but she was anything but that. Most of her memoirs deal with the terrible months on Delhi Ridge during the Indian Mutiny but even when young she lived through wild adventures and experiences that maybe only a childhood in a military family in the India of the time could have provided and which seemed to have formed women of extraordinary strength of character and resilience. She was a loving mother to 10 children (8 of whom lived, against all odds), loyal and devoted wife and unflagging believer in the goodness of God - despite murder, massacres and mayhem all around her. Political correctness warriors might take exception to her speaking of the “ignorant, gullible, idol-worshipping Hindus” and the “wily Mohammedans who but for this dreadful unChristlike religion would be splendid men in other respects” but India was her life and apart from several miserable years in England during her youth it was her home. She spoke fluent Hindustani, travelled widely, took invaluable photographs and met people from all strata of Indian society from the lowly sweeper to the King of Oudh. She survived 2 years on the hellish Andaman Islands and after her husband’s early death realised her life-long goal to build an orphanage and convalescent home for Indian children in Simla where she also wrote these vivid and fascinating reminiscences.