Twenty-One Days in India, or, the Tour Of Sir Ali Baba K.C.B.; and, the Teapot SeriesAberigh-Mackay, George
General
Twenty-One Days in India, or, the Tour Of Sir Ali Baba K.C.B.; and, the Teapot Series
Aberigh-Mackay, George
India -- Description and travel; India -- Politics and government -- 1765-1947; India -- Social life and customs
Among many changes in Indian administration which he initiated, and
which were severely decried at the time, but the benefits of which
experience has amply vindicated, was the amalgamation of Oudh with, or
rather annexation to, the North-Western Provinces, the final
arrangements being completed at the Imperial Assemblage at Delhi on
January 1 1877, with the concurrence--which he had sought
previously--of all the principal Talukdars of Oudh there assembled.
The great pageant at Delhi (which formed the subject of Ali Baba's
first contribution to _Vanity Fair_, and which he attended officially
as the Guardian of the Raja of Rutlam), so far from being a mere empty
show, as then decried by his political foes, enabled the Viceroy to
settle, promptly and satisfactorily by personal conferences, a great
many important administrative questions. All as recorded by him in his
narrative letter of December 23, 1876, to January 10, 1877, to her
late Majesty Queen Victoria, which embraced events at Delhi, Pattiala,
Umballa, Aligurh, and Agra.
Among the Oudh officials who were dispossessed of their appointments
in 1877, some of them with but scanty compensation, was the late Mr.
(afterwards Sir) E.N.C. Braddon, a kinsman of the novelist, who held
the appointment of Superintendent of Stamps, Stationery, and
Registration at Lucknow. Mr. Braddon was an uncovenanted servant of
comparatively short service, and eligible for s very moderate
compensation. Lord Lytton, unsolicited, took up his case, overruled
various objections, obtained liberal terms for Mr. Braddon by which he
was able to resign his appointment and proceed to Tasmania, where he
entered political life, rising to be Premier and afterwards
Agent-General for that Colony in London, and ultimately obtaining, in
1891, his K.C.M.G.
It was to Lord Lytton's personal action--in the face of would-be
obsequious apathy in certain quarters--that Aberigh-Mackay, the
youngest on the list, was nominated a Fellow of the Calcutta
University in 1880, an honour usually reserved for officials of high
standing. He then availed himself of that status to bring about the
affiliation of the Rajkumar College at Indore to the same University,
with, as a matter of course, the concurrence of the Syndicate.
No. 2
THE A.-D.-C.-IN-WAITING
We have here an admirable summary of the highly important personal
duties of a tactful A.D.C. to an Indian Viceroy. Not the least
important being the superintendence of the Invitation Department. It
was in this very connection that an A.D.C. to an Indian Governor,
fresh from a West Indian appointment and Society somewhat on "Tom
Cringle's Log" conditions, by issuing invitations to a _Quality
Dance_, gave rise, in Southern India, to a social commotion which
reacted very unfavourably as regards the efficient working of various
departments of his Chief's general administration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account