| Summary: |
Audio recording of oral history interview with Geoffrey Allen covering the period 1912-1947.
Cassette side OA1/1/1: Family connections with India. Family's homes. Childhood recollections. Work as estate manager for Maharajah of Darbhanga. Description of Purnea's Anglo-Indian community; friendships. Events organised by the Maharajah. Importance of political tour in unadministered areas of North East Frontier Agency. Mapping areas. Trading arrangements between villages.
Cassette side OA1/1/2: Undeveloped societies. Appointing government headmen; approaching villages. Touring Sadiya area; difficulties caused by terrain. Hearing cases between tribes. Touring during rains. Location of various tribes. Description of tribes; diversity. Tribal clothing.
Cassette side OA1/1/3: Visiting village during tour of north west Assam. Account of start of earthquake. Description of tremors; effects. Sending message. Continuing tour. Effects of earthquakes. Effects of earthquake in foothills; longterm effects. Floods in Sadiya. Administrative organisation of Assam.
Cassette side OA1/1/4: Appointment as assistant political officer; checking opium passes. Description of Mishmi communities in Luhit valley; clothing, trading. Difficulties of crossing the Luhit; methods of building and crossing cane rope bridges. Crossing on cane rope. Construction of steel cable bridges. Taking over from alcoholic manager on Darbhanga estate: his eventual death; organising funeral. Demonstrations on Maharajah's land. Friendships with Indians.
Cassette side OA1/1/5: Tour of Dafla area. Conflict between villages. Hostility towards tour party; peaceful meeting with headmen. Settling feuds by impressing Daflas with gunfire and electric current. Legendary monsters. Life of political officer in North East Frontier Agency; awareness of predecessors' work. Hunting with criminal tribes as a youth; catching pigs and porcupine. Incident with hyena.
Cassette side OA1/1/6: Crocodile shoots on Ganges; method. Description of crocodile. Scavenging cremated bodies in Ganges. Spearing lake fish. Catching crocodile in lake. Description of Christmas shooting camps. Account of shooting a tiger. Shooting peafowl.
Cassette side OA1/1/7: Pig sticking in Bihar. Description of horse. Methods of spearing pigs. Injuries inflicted by boars. Holding meets; team pig sticking. Dangers involved. Observing Indian gypsies' 'calling' method of hunting jackal. Description of calls.
Cassette side OA1/1/8: Accounts of 'calling' mongoose and jackal. Maharajah of Darbhanga's buffalo shoots; attempts to impress visiting dignitaries with lavish hospitality. Description of Maharajah's palaces, furniture and polo ponies. Shooting from elephant. Assam jungle; trying to find temple. Running elephant kedda. Capturing elephants in stockade.
Cassette side OA1/1/9: Method of isolating individual elephants. Description of training. Elephant 'language'. Catching shark. Being charged by rhinoceros. Awareness of great reduction in Indian wildlife. Huge quantities killed by hunting. Love of jungle.
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| Main author: |
Allen; Geoffrey St G T (fl 1912-1972); colonial officer |
| Other authors: |
Allen; Charles (b 1940); historian and interviewer |
| Extent: |
4 hr. 30 min.
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| Admin history: |
British Assistant Political Officer in Indian Political Service in North West Frontier district, India. |
| Access status: |
Closed
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| Access conditions: |
Access to sound recording of this interview is currently unavailable at SOAS Library. The transcript can be consulted. Researchers can access a copy of this sound recording at the British Library Listening & Viewing Service. Reference: C1510/01/01-09. For more details see www.bl.uk/listening or contact listening@bl.uk / 020 7412 7418.
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| Copyright: |
Copyright held by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |
| User restrictions: |
Private study only. For publication or broadcast please refer to Archivist |
| Language: |
English
|
| Copies: |
Copy available at British Library Listening & Viewing Service. Reference: C1510/01/01-09
Copy available at Imperial War Museum. Reference: 004900/09 |
| Related material: |
Transcript available at SOAS Library. Reference: OA1/1/T |
| Format: |
Archive
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