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'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [‎33r] (65/156)

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The record is made up of 1 file (78 folios). It was created in 1983?. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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CHAPTER ?: MOUNT ABU, RAJPUTANA 1939 - 1941
In January 1939 we sailed from Tilbury in the P & 0 'SS Strathallan' to return to
India. I had just celebrated my 30th birthday, and Mary her 29th. Before we left
we had been instructed to proceed to Mount Abu, where I was to take up the post of
Under Secretary to the Resident for the States of Rajputana, who was also ex-officio
Chief Commissioner for Ajmer-Merwara. Mount Abu was a semi-hill station in the
Aravalli Hills at the height of about 4,000 feet above sea level. It was consequently
a good deal cooler than the plains it overlooked. It had been the headquarters of the
Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. since well before the Mutiny of 1857. The Civil Station covering an area of
about eight square miles was in fact an ’enclave', leased to the Indian Government
by the Maharao of Sirohi, whose territories surrounded it on all sides. In addition
to the Resident's large mansion, it contained the offices of his considerable staff
located in a huge and sombre building popularly known as 'the Bastille'. The bungalows
of the officers and a large number of small scale 'Palaces' belonging to the various
Ruling Princes of Rajputana and Kathiawar, who normally spent the worst of the summer
months with their families and retainers in Abu, dotted the valleys and hill tops of
the 'enclave'. I fancy it was not the climate nor the beautiful scenery which attracted
these Princes to Abu - prestige played a large part in their congregating together, for
a Ruler without a Palace in Abu lost face with his colleagues who might steal a march on
him vis a vis the feared Resident of the large political grouping comprising the States
of Rajputana. Sir Arthur Lothian, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., was Resident during my time in
Abu. He was one of the most experienced and respected Political Officers of his day,
and he had played a major role in the implementation of the policies enshrined in the
Government of India Act to improve the standards of administration in Indian States
as a whole, so that when eventually India achieved its Independence from Britain, they
could take their rightful place in whatever constitution then evolved. I should add that
these policies did not commend themselves to the Princes as a whole, either then or
later; they regarded the constant prodding of the Residents and Political Agents to
put their houses in order before it was too late, with unconcealed distaste.
Mount Abu had a very attractive setting. The wooded hills on the sides of which many
of the Palaces and officers' bungalows were built looked down on a picturesque lake
studded with islands, called the 'Nakki Talao'. The lake and the large Hindu Temple on
the edge of the water made it a place of pilgrimage and veneration, especially to
members of the Jain Sect, but also to Hindus of all persuasions. But the holiest
place of all was the world-famous Dilwara Temples, about four miles from Abu in the
hills outside the 'enclave', which went back 800 years to the 11th century.
The Resident spent six months of the year in Abu and the remainder either in Ajm^r,
where, he had a second Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , or touring amongst the 20-odd states of Rajputana.

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Content

This file contains a photocopy of a typewritten draft of Sir John Richard Cotton's (b 1909) memoirs of his time in the Indian military and civil service. The memoirs, which were written when the author was 'in his seventy-fourth year', cover his time in the Indian Army, at Aden, Ethiopia, Attock, the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , Mount Abu, Hyderabad, Rajkot (Kathiawar), the Political Department in New Delhi, and finally the UK High Commission in Pakistan.

Extent and format
1 file (78 folios)
Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 78; these numbers are written in pencil and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The file also contains an original printed foliation sequence.

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English in Latin script
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'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [‎33r] (65/156), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F226/7, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100076278456.0x000042> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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