Book review: Thirteen Months in China: A Subaltern Indian and the Colonial World
Anand A. Yang,
Kamal Sheel, Ranjana Sheel:
Reviewed by Emily Whewell
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Version: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=53231
Thirteen Months in
China is an annotated
translation of Gadadhar Singh’s 1902 self-published book, Chῑn Me Terah
Mᾱs, a British Indian soldier’s perspective and experience in China during
the Boxer Uprising. The Boxer Uprising at the turn of the twentieth century was
a key moment in Sino-foreign relations. The rebellion ended with the
suppression of the anti-foreign Boxers and the liberation of the foreign
legations by a military force comprising of eight foreign nations. This
“International Expedition” included British forces, with the majority of
British soldiers belonging to Indian regiments. The uprising’s suppression also
came at a cost to lives, homes, and livelihoods. Singh’s account gives an
insight into how one Indian man understood his engagement with China.
The eyewitness account
is a fascinating insight into the event and a description of China precisely
because it is the voice of a somewhat ordinary Indian man. There have been many
Western accounts of the Boxer Uprising and its suppression, as well as other
key moments in modern Chinese history. Whether these were
from missionaries, merchants, or government officials, they have provided
a number of foreign perspectives. Yet Indian voices pale in comparison. From
policemen to soldiers and merchants, Indians were a key part of the British
presence in China. This text therefore adds another “on the ground”
perspective, but one that appears to differ from other foreign accounts. For
example, there appears to be a fuller detailing of atrocities—something that is
often glossed over by other Western military accounts and which
provides more insight into the potential nature and extent of the violence in
the course of the military campaign.
Anand Yang provides an
interesting and illuminating introduction. Singh’s Chῑn Me Terah Mᾱs,
as Yang reminds the nonspecialized reader, is often considered one of the first
Hindi book-length overseas travel narratives. However, the text is not simply
important because Singh was a pioneer. Aside from an account of the military
campaign against the Boxers, Singh wrote the text intending it to be a
commentary reflecting upon colonialism and what India could learn from China’s
predicament. The text is also important given the status of Singh. Yang
proclaims that it is a “text written by a subaltern, about subaltern
experiences, and intended for fellow subalterns and the emerging reading
public” (p. 9). Certainly, Singh was an ordinary solider, although one would
imagine that proficiency in English and his desire to write his experiences for
an audience made Singh perhaps a little different from other “subalterns.”
The text itself has
been translated by Anand Yang, Kamal Sheel, and Ranjana Sheel. The first, slim
part begins with his journey in June 1900 from Calcutta to China and the second
focuses on war campaigns. The campaign starts from Dagu up toward the capital,
ending with the liberation of the Foreign Legation. It is a fascinating
narrative of the events, yet the last part, titled “miscellaneous
accounts” is arguably even more intriguing. His account turns to a brief
history of the foreign campaign suppressing the Boxers and a general history of
China from the mid-nineteenth century until 1900. This is followed by
descriptions of China, its people, and its customs. A large part is dedicated
to region and religious customs. It is here that Singh draws many comparisons
of India and China and proposes his ideas of how “Hindustan” should learn
certain lessons from China’s predicament.
The text has been
translated in a way that appears to capture much of Singh’s voice. In one
instance, for example, he describes the potential of being crushed by a
military force as being “made into chutney,” bringing little flavors of Indian
cultural expressions that light up his story in interesting ways (p. 80). The
translators have been careful to keep in many original words, phrases, and
idiosyncrasies, with English translations in parenthesis. It might have been
interesting to have dedicated a little more in the introduction to the translation
process, other than the general style and tone and specific points in
footnotes. Given that the work is largely a translation of a text, an added
section on the particularities of the approach to translation could have added
more to the understanding of the original text.
Nevertheless, the
translation of the text provides not only a rare glimpse of an Indian soldier’s
account of a key event in modern Chinese history. It is also an account of an
Indian solider seeing India through China, and China through the eyes of India
when many Indians were considering key political, social, religious, and
cultural practices through the understanding of nationalism and colonialism.
The publication of the text is also timely, as it adds to a growing scholarly
interest in Sino-Indian relations, and how Indians in China understood their
colonial world. As such, it will be an insightful text for to those who are
interested in the ideas of reform and nationalism in the early twentieth
century in India, those interested in a different perspective of the Boxer
suppression, and, of course, those interested in the connection between India
and China. Although Singh’s text was not widely read at the time, and certainly
not by English-speakers, one hopes it can be now.
Citation: Emily Whewell. Review of Yang, Anand A.; Sheel,
Kamal; Sheel, Ranjana, Thirteen Months in China: A Subaltern Indian and
the Colonial World. H-Asia, H-Net Reviews. September, 2019. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=53231
