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  • Between Two Worlds: A Rajput Officer in the Indian Army, 1905–21. Based on the Diary of Amar Singh of Jaipur
  • Tarak Barkawi
Between Two Worlds: A Rajput Officer in the Indian Army, 1905–21. Based on the Diary of Amar Singh of Jaipur. By DeWitt C. Ellinwood, Jr. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. ISBN 0-716-3113-4. Maps. Glossary. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xiv, 679. $76.00.

Amar Singh (1878–1942) was a noble from one of the nominally self-ruled princely states of the British Raj. He served as a rissaldar in the Jodhpur Lancers in China during the Boxer Rebellion. On return he joined the Imperial Cadet Corps, an early, faltering step towards the Indianization of [End Page 851] the officer corps of the regular Indian Army. Granted a restricted commission on graduation in 1905, Amar Singh could not command troops and was (under)employed in a variety of staff and aide de camp positions. He was finally given a King's commission in 1917, serving for the first time as a regimental officer at the age of 39 and experiencing the racism of younger British officers. From 1898 until his death, Amar Singh maintained an elaborate and lengthy diary in English, running to eighty-nine volumes. The first eight years are excerpted in Reversing the Gaze, edited by Susanne and Lloyd Rudolph (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2002). (Reviewed in JMH 65 (2001): 814–15.) DeWitt Ellinwood tackles the period 1905–21, which covers Amar Singh's service on the Western Front and in Mesopotamia during the First World War and later on the Northwest Frontier.

Due to light duties and the leisurely pace of the Indian Army in peacetime, Amar Singh had time for his diary and for life as a Rajput noble, maintaining his family's estates and enjoying the court as well as socializing with British officialdom. Accordingly, the diaries are of value not only for military historians but also for ethnographers and social and political historians of British India. They are especially rich on the intrigues between and among the princely families and British officials. While Amar Singh saw a great deal of war, he did not command troops on active service during the period covered in this volume with the exception of some minor actions on the Frontier. The diaries contain some keen observations of fighting on the Western Front and the situation of the Indian Corps there, as well as of the debacle at Kut-el-Amara in Mesopotamia, but are of more interest for scholars interested in "war and society" themes than strictly operational matters.

Ellinwood has chosen to summarize Amar Singh's diaries, providing some extensive quotations. Much of the text takes the form of paraphrasing with illustrative short quotations, commentary and relevant historical background. In contrast, Reversing the Gaze is made up largely of excerpts from the diaries. Ellinwood's approach is somewhat disappointing for the specialist looking for an unmediated encounter with Amar Singh's voice. However, Ellinwood has ended up providing a rich introduction to the culture and politics of the Raj and its armed forces in the first decades of the twentieth century. The bibliography is extensive, the tone of the text conversational and informative, and the uninitiated reader will find a sure guide to the peculiarities and intricacies of British rule and colonial society, no small achievement. The text is of particular value for teaching undergraduates, as it provides a seductive mix of first person experience with Ellinwood's summaries of relevant scholarship.

Military specialists will find extensive discussion of Indianization, coupled with Amar Singh's often reserved observations of the treatment he received as well as portraits of sympathetic British officers. He was often used as a kind of "native informant" by his generals, seeking information on the welfare of Indian troops they could not get from British officers. There is much on the morale of the Indian Corps as well as the double standards by which British and Indian troops were judged. The inherent conflict between [End Page 852] the brotherhood of commissioned officers and the racial divisions of colonial society is a major theme. Amar Singh's...

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