Abstract
THESE sketches of south Indian life are concerned, not with any of the districts, like Madura or Tanjore, in the extreme south of the peninsula, but with Ganjam, which while politically connected with the Madras Presidency, is by the race, language, and customs of its people more closely linked with the Bengal Province of Orissa. This political separation from his northern kinsfolk has worked evil to the Uriya of Ganjam. The ordinary Madrasi looks on him as an inferior creature, “not merely low in the rank of civilisation, but incapable of better things”; and he is carefully excluded from the official employment which is monopolised by his Telegu neighbours in the south. Hence, as might have been expected, he has no ambition to develop his own language or literature, and he remains a boor, slovenly in his mode of life, and with little love for the foreign native officials who manage his affairs. But he is not quite destitute of good qualities. He is a hardworking farmer; he is not given to drink, like the Telegu; and Mr. Rice vouches for the fact that, when addressed in his own tongue by one who understands and appreciates him, he is courteous and hospitable. But still there is a vein of savagery beneath his boorish exterior, as is shown by the graphic account given by Mr. Rice of the so-called Rebellion of Parlakimedi, which plunged the land in ruin and anarchy during the early years of last century. As usual in such cases, it arose from the apathy and ignorance of the early officials; and it was not till many years had passed in maladministration that a strong man was found at last in Mr. George Russell, one of those little-known heroes of our Indian services, who gave the land peace which has never since been disturbed.
Occasional Essays on Nalive South Indian Life.
By Stanley P. Rice, Indian Civil Service. Pp. vi + 223. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1901.) Price 10s. 6d. net.
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Occasional Essays on Nalive South Indian Life . Nature 64, 574 (1901). https://doi.org/10.1038/064574a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/064574a0