April 5, 1999
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SAVAGING
THE CIVILISED An Englishman Abroad A fascinating look at the about-turn of a missionary who turned native. SAVAGING THE CIVILISED
Reliving the life of a man who -- like Rudyard Kipling, George Nathaniel Curzon and a large number of unsung administrators before him -- was fascinated by the idea of the "noble savage" is daunting. Apart from the non-existent tradition of biography writing, there is the horrifying turgidity of inherited prose that mars scholastic endeavours in India. Indians have become -- of late -- compelling storytellers. But they remain poor chroniclers and poorer historians. On the stultifying tradition of hagiography has been superimposed the dogmatism of Marxism. The old-fashioned man of letters has virtually disappeared, hounded out of academia by the Jawaharlal Nehru University variety of philistinism. Fortunately, Ramachandra Guha is one of those who got away. In documenting the fascinating life of a man who turned native, he has compromised neither scholastic rigour nor idiomatic English. He has told the story of an Englishman abroad with style, understanding, a lot of sympathy and devotion to detail. Guha has put biography on the publishing map of India. He has not only rescued Elwin from the dead weight of anthropological morbidity, he has re-established good, liberal scholarship. It wouldn't be merely flattering an old college friend to suggest that Savaging the Civilised is a landmark. It's not just the life of Elwin that is gripping. It is Guha's approach that has made all the difference. Unlike most Indian writers who carry a monumental chip on their shoulders about the colonial encounter, Guha has tried to get under Elwin's skin. He has succeeded, but not without a tinge of politically correct embarrassment over the reading of Elwin today. The theme that resounds is the complete about-turn of a man who began as an agonised missionary, then flirted with Gandhism, celibacy and embryonic Third Worldism and finally turned his back on the entire missionary tradition. Elwin wrote in 1944 that a change of religion "destroys tribal unity, strips the people of age-old moral sanctions, separates them from the mass of their fellow-countrymen and ... leads to a decadence that is as pathetic as it is deplorable". He saw the faith of the Adivasi in Bastar as "closely related to Shaivite Hinduism" and was instrumental in ensuring the exclusion of missionaries from Arunachal Pradesh. Elwin began his anthropological career among the Gonds as a exclusionist; he ended life in 1963, a government servant cautiously promoting nationalist integration. Guha doesn't drive home the obvious contemporary resonance of Elwin, the renegade Christian. That's just as well. Elwin didn't really have an agenda. He was a restless soul who tried to find his life's mission in religion, found some fulfilment among "his" tribals and less so with his women. He ended up finding India and preserving his sense of humour. That made him very English. Enjoying Birds Minorities in a Democracy Laugh with Laxman |
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There was a
time, not that long ago, when England was a great nation. Its people were guided by
adventure and moulded by eccentricities. Whether forging the world's greatest empire or
minutely documenting the mating habits of turtles in the Solomon Islands, the English --
strangely for a country that is so utterly grey -- gave the world a large dash of colour.
Verrier Elwin, a largely forgotten figure in his own country but honoured in his adopted
India, was one of those who contributed in making the 100 years from 1850 England's
century. He was one of England's more endearing gifts to India. 
