Footnotes

• AN EXTENSIVE, DETAILED AND INTRIGUING ACCOUNT of Captain Harvey's life in India and his time as tutor to the young Maharaja. Harvey describes, often in colourful detail, colonial society, balls, state occasions, polo tournaments, race meetings, tours, trips, places and the people he encounters. The volumes chart the personal and academic development of the young Maharaja and the relationship that develops between him and Harvey throughout the course of Harvey's tenure.
  
  Often provocative, he also describes family feuds within the royal household, "state ineptitude", pejorative descriptions of the Maharaja's wider family, including his "wicked uncles" and his "relentlessly ambitious" mother, palace finances and the Maharaja's academic reports, complete with "points in favour" and "points against" (including "excellent manner...intelligence, dignity and modesty" versus "superstitious and convinced of the absurdest possibilities"). He goes on to elaborate on the latter commenting that "some of the miracles they have told me are beyond belief...A certain sorcerer (a Namudiri Brahmin) in the Alwaye District was interrupted at his prayers by the sound of a neighbour's gun. He sent a protest, and asked him to wait till after the Brahmin's prayers were over. The sportsman ignored the request and levelled the gun at some bird and pulled the trigger. To his amazement, water poured from both his barrels time and time again he reloaded, but each time only water left the gun! This story was told to me quietly and deliberately by H.H. as being absolutely correct in every detail."

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Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts

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