Imperial and post‐imperial congruence: A challenge to ideological simplification

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Imperial and post‐imperialcongruence: A challenge toideological simplificationJ. A. Mangan a & Kausik Bandyopadhyay ba Fellow of the Royal Historical Societyb Lecturer of History , North Bengal UniversityPublished online: 01 Jul 2009.

To cite this article: J. A. Mangan & Kausik Bandyopadhyay (2004) Imperialand post‐imperial congruence: A challenge to ideological simplification,The International Journal of the History of Sport, 21:3-4, 402-429, DOI:10.1080/09523360409510548

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Imperial and Post-Imperial Congruence:A Challenge to Ideological Simplification

J. A. MANGAN and KAUSIK BANDYOPADHYAY

At their poor best, colonial regimes are portrayed as expressions ofincompetent paternalism, and at their worst as oppressive,racialist, exploitative and the source of the Third World's presentwoes. The balance is slowly being adjusted . . . 1

This chapter is concerned with the flexibility of personal 'borders'2 inone specific setting and in the case of one specific individual, an Indiancivil servant, Peter McWilliam.

The term 'borders' can serve as a powerful metaphor forpsychological, sexual, spiritual, cultural, class and racial boundaries.Furthermore, the term can relate simultaneously to social interactionand to individual identity. 'Borders', following Avtar Brah, may bedefined as: 'arbitrary dividing lines that are simultaneously social,cultural and psychic; territories to be patrolled against those whom theyconstruct as outsiders, aliens, the others . . . places where claims toownership - claims to "mine", "yours" and "theirs" - are staked out,contested, defended and fought over.'4 The concern here is less withhow such 'borders' are monitored, regulated and enforced and morewith how they are crossed with agreement and approval. This chapterdeals with one imperial administrator who made this journey. He is areminder, if one is needed, that 'borders' can be questioned, adjusted,even overcome. Precise calculation of the extent of these responses isoften far from easy, but such things do occur. His journey is notimperial history on a grand scale but on a small scale, and no lessvaluable for this reason. General strategies stimulate a variety of localactions and grass-root reactions which generate subtlety of interpreta-tion and outcome. For these reasons history is more complete afterconsideration of the personal, small scale and 'insignificant'5 and

The International Journal of the History of Sport, Vol.21, Nos.3/4, June-Sept. 2004, pp.402-429ISSN 0952-3367 print/1743-9035 onlineDOI: 10.1080/0952336042000223117 © 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd.

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Imperial and Post-imperial Congruence 403

imperial history is no exception. Attention to the 'personal as thepolitical' can be valuable; it refines notions of strategic coherence,stereotypic attitudes and uniform patterns.6

In imperial history there is certainly a need to pay greater attention tosmall-scale history in order to overcome a too narrow subscription towhat has been referred to as 'the politics of solidarity' and to stimulatethe search for the politics of fluidity. In the story of British imperialism,if the specificity of particular malignities require identification, then thisis no less true of particular benignities. They existed. In this chapter aneffort is made to nuance the imperial experience and to expose whatfashion does bury, by concentrating on one small-scale imperialadministrator in one small-scale imperial setting, on the ways that theruler and the ruled contacted and interacted with one another.7 Thisapproach embraces experience as much as ideology, practice as muchtheory, substance as much as semblance.

One recent commentator on empire has remarked that after theDominions had established British style government with constitutionalequality with Britain ' . . . another story of evolution gradually unfoldedas the Indian Empire and the remainder of the colonies were advancedalong the same road of constitutional evolution to such a point that theyachieved their own version of independence from British rule. Like theformer Dominions they remained loyal to the traditions and institutionsof parliamentary government, and the idea of some form of post-imperialconnection and association.'' (Emphasis added). This chapter providesevidence of this.

The same commentator has suggested that the general explanation ofthe Empire's impact has shifted over time from an emphasis on what'the British decided and did' to an emphasis on the assorted experiences'of many peoples in many parts of the world whom the Britishencountered, dominated, damaged and grudgingly set free.'9 Thus 'thenew post-imperial history of India, presented British intrusion into theaffairs of the sub-continent as ephemeral and regrettable,'10 whileliterary scholars adopted another analytical approach, namely a concernwith 'systems of power and domination and . . . the derogatorystereotypes of other alien, subordinated societies.'11 He addedpertinently that 'those who view the empire as 'domination' andindependence as 'freedom' attract criticism for regarding the past in toosimplified a form of 'good and evil' and of 'us versus them'... and forignoring the extent to which empire was about collaboration and

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404 Sport in South Asian Society

consensus as well as about conflict and coercion.'12 They wouldcertainly include 'those most recent scholars who concentrate on theimperial periphery or work with texts and discourses [who] tend todisregard Britain - either because they want to minimize the part theimperial metropolis played in the longer history of their nation orcommunity or (alternatively and contradictorily) because they prefer tosettle for a cardboard caricature of British omnipotence and imperialwickedness.'13

In inquiries into imperial history there is a need to release the windfrom the bulging balloon of imbalance by pricking it firmly with theneedle of balance. The truth of the matter, it has been suggested by thesame commentator, was that the Empire was a 'vast interconnectedworld' and a complex interactive system. These facts, he argues,should encourage the inspection of the Empire as a social entity,15 andhe attempts to break new ground by addressing the issue of the Empireas, among other things, a system of social perceptions.16 This chapter,more modestly, addresses, as far as the evidence allows, this issue fromthe perspective of one man's perceptions in one place on the Indiansub-continent, and the indigenous perceptions they stimulated.

The source of the above assertions, David Cannadine, has suggestedfamously that the Empire was 'as much, indeed perhaps more, aboutthe replication of sameness and similarity originating from themetropolis as it was about any emphasis on differences anddissimilarities originating from overseas.'17 Many subscribed to theprocess of domestication which as a social construct 'gained coherenceand credibility from a whole range of imperial institutions andpractices.'18 It was, suggested Cannadine, more important andpervasive than has generally been recognized,19 but, nevertheless,attempts at the 'domestication of the exotic' proved to be less than 'fullyconvincing or universally accepted, either in the metropolis or on theperiphery'.20 There was, in short, both opportunity for variation inimperial implementation as well as indigenous response to it.

With this in mind regarding the British in India, it is interesting tonote the words of a member of the Indian Civil Service, Hubert Evans,who was a contemporary of McWilliam: 'No Viceroy, no Governorbreathed down your neck . . . no Secretary came poking his nose intoyour job', while the Secretariat left the up-country administrator to hisown devices.21 All that was required by way of accountability, wroteEvans, was 'to submit a Fortnightly Report and the joy of it was that we

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were sole arbiters of what went into this'.22 It is for this reason thatmore attention needs to be given to 'the varied — sometimes, evencontradictory - ways in which the British visualized and imagined theirempire hierarchically'.23 It was not a uniform vision. Recognition of thisfact will help avoid tunnel analysis. This visualized and imaginedhierarchy was more complex than often supposed. If, beyond Britain,class superiority and inferiority was one form of hierarchical vision, thesame was true of the metropolis. The desolate, domestic inner citieswere seen in the same light as the imperial vastnesses as the repositoriesof imperial savagery. There was, of course, the added complexity thatclass could be even more important on occasion than race (importantthough this was), in the assessment of imperial superiority andinferiority. Indeed, there were yet other complexities. The missionaryteachers, Cecil Earle Tyndale-Biscoe and Alexander Garden Fraserwere completely 'colourless' and 'classless' in their approach to theirpupils and at various times courageously rebutted indigenous attitudesof both racial and class arrogance. To add a further layer ofcomplexity to this hierarchical vision, both were unapologeticallyethnocentric in their conviction that Christianity was the true religion.As will be revealed shortly, McWilliam, the subject of this chapter,shared their belief in the fundamental equality of all individuals, whichled to his efforts, among other things, to create in Bengal communityand school sports teams of mixed race, class and religion.

These men are examples of complex imperial perceptions that defysimplistic stereotyping.26 They were far from being colonialistcacademons. They demonstrate a flexibility of personal attitude thatsuggests psychological, cultural and social 'borders' could be, and were,crossed. Nevertheless, all three men had in common a belief in sport asan instrument of imperial moral persuasion.

It has been argued irrefutably by Allen Guttmann that assertions ofthe British origins of modern sport are somewhat hyperbolic. After all,baseball, basketball and volleyball were invented in the United Statesand disseminated by Americans rather than by Britons. However, heconcedes that 'from the eighteenth century until the middle of thetwentieth, Great Britain's role in the development of modern sports wasgreater than that of any other nation.'28

Guttmann has much of value to say about the origins and nature ofmodern sport, the causes of its global dissemination and sport ascultural hegemony. Among the factors determining the spread of

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modern sport, he asserts, 'the most important is the relative political,economic and cultural power of the nations involved.'29 This is surelyan uncontentious assertion and goes a long way to explain the role ofBritain in this regard in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Hisrelated observation has equal merit: 'it is . . . a reductionist mistake tosuggest . . . that European missionaries, military men and civiladministrators propagated modern sports simply as a convenient formof social control. Worthier motives - such as the desire to improve thehealth, to encourage the fortitude and to diminish the religiousanimosities of the native population - cannot be ignored orcondescendingly discounted as mere colonial camouflage.' He added,that such idealism might be hard for Marxist historians to accept;nevertheless it was one explanation. Thus although 'devout believers inhistorical materialism may resist the notion, it is nonetheless true thatthe urge to bring the heathen to Christ can motivate as powerfully asthe desire to sell them Coca-Cola.'31 Similarly, it may be argued, thedesire of the imperial administrator to improve the lives of theadministrated can be an equally powerful motivation.

What of the analytical merits respectively of the terms 'culturalimperialism' and 'cultural hegemony' which Guttmann employs asanalytical devices? Is 'cultural imperialism' sufficiently sophisticated asan explanatory device? Does 'cultural hegemony' provide 'more than amerely cosmetic improvement over the concept of cultural imperial-ism because Gramscian theory correctly stresses the fact that culturalinteraction is something more complex than the domination of thetotally powerful over the totally powerless?'32 It is certainly sensible toappreciate that in most circumstances individuals can determine tosome extent their own actions, can choose up to a point what theyaccept and what they reject. They can also adapt and reshapeallegedly 'imposed' ideas and activities. In imperial settings they couldand did turn the instruments of colonialism against the colonialist;they could and did also both accept and demand these instruments asa source of willing association born of satisfaction, not to mentionappreciation and emulation.33 With specific regard to modern sport 'inplace of jeremiads about the loss of 'authenticity' we do well toacknowledge that modern sports - for better or worse - have becomethe heritage of mankind'34, and have been used in a variety of waysfor a variety of reasons by a wide variety of individuals, communitiesand nations.

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Guttmann also asks, 'Why should not modern sports be studied asintensely - under the rubric of cultural imperialism - as language,literature and the mass media?'35 Why not indeed, but better stillperhaps under the rubrics of 'cultural imperialism', 'cultural hege-mony', cultural bonding' and 'moral imperialism'. The morecomprehensive the approach the more complete the analysis!

Guttmann remarks that when the first Indian cricket team touredEngland in 1886, 'Cricket Chat was quick to see the political utility ofthe game: 'anything which tend to promote an assimilation of tastes andhabits between the English and the native subjects of our EmpressQueen cannot fail to conduce to the solidarity of the British Empire."36

Since he adds that this does not seem to have been the view of theaverage Anglo-Indian player, who hindered rather than abetted thespread of the game among the native people, it is useful to locate andrecord the efforts of at least one imperial administrator, PeterMcWilliam,37 who organized sport with a different attitude anddifferent outcome, admittedly on a smaller scale than Lord Harris,38 atone time Governor of Bombay and late President of the ImperialCricket Conference, who, like McWilliam, 'hoped that the game mightbind together India's religiously, linguistically, and ethnically diversepopulations'39. McWilliam also had hopes of sport as a cultural bondbringing together not only Indians, but Englishmen and Indians,binding them together by means of shared enjoyed experiences.

The recently published Sport in Asian Society: Past and Present was'concerned with the arrival, spread and advance of modern sport inAsia.' The concern here is with the arrival, spread and advance ofmodern sport in South Asia, not, however, in the hands ofentrepreneurs, missionaries, teachers, soldiers and sailors but in thehands of a rather more neglected group of men - the imperial civilservants. Criticism was made in Sport in Asian Society of the limitednature of the explanation of several writers regarding the arrival andspread of modern sport on the Indian sub-continent which paidinsufficient attention to the part played by missionary teachers.41 Hereis a better description, though still incomplete: 'Soldiers and school-teachers were the John the Baptists of the faith of association footballand the hundred other recreational devices of the Victorian British:soldiers, schoolteachers and priests and railway workers and miners andfactory managers took them across the world in a few short decades, andwhen they had finished their work the world would never be the same

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again.'42 What is missing is reference to and consideration of the lessergovernment official and his role in a process which has had suchremarkable consequences for many Asian nations, and one in particular,India!43

In the diffusion of modern sport throughout the Empire in the latenineteenth and early twentieth centuries imperial administrators playedtheir part at various levels. These men, mostly products of the Englishpublic school, were greatly influenced by the period 'games ethic' learnton their school playing fields.44 One imperial administrator, whointerestingly had neither a public school nor 'Oxbridge' background butwho deserves consideration for his benign attempts to organize modernsport on the Indian sub-continent, was McWilliam, a member of theIndian Civil Service from 1930 to 1947.

In north Bengal, first as Sub Divisional Officer, Alipurduar in the1930s and later as Deputy Commissioner of Jalpaiguri District in the1940s, McWilliam was responsible for a number of cultural institutionsincluding a school and a football club. These actions and others will bediscussed more fully below. While for the imperial educationalist sportwas often a means of inculcating manly qualities of a western muscularChristian nature, for McWilliam it became at least as much as a culturalbond with India and Indians. Together with other powerful memories ittied him to Alipurduar for life. It provided experiences that ensured hislasting love of the town and the region: 'sharply focused memories ofsporting moments - played and watched - are the most frequentlyrecalled and infrequently forgotten . . . Shared moments in sport playedtheir part in linking past, present and future.'45 The outcome forMcWilliam was a life-long sense of belonging.

Hubert Evans joined the Indian Civil service in 1928 and left ittwenty years later. He was in the ICS a little longer than McWilliambut most of their service years overlapped. His reflection in hisautobiography, Looking Back on India, could have been written by hiscolleague, McWilliam: 'To go by my own experience of living amongher people both in India's districts and her capital city familiarity breedsrespect.'46

Long after retirement to Bristol McWilliam cherished the dream ofreturning to his place and his people, in Alipurduar. What this reveals isa reciprocated continuity of colonial and post-colonial respect andaffection, demonstrated not merely by stated feelings, but also bypractical actions, as will be made clear shortly. What McWilliam put in

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place in Alipurduar is there today, adjusted and advanced, of course, topresent requirements and circumstances but far from divorced fromhim in terms of values and associations. He is not so much a case of abuno disce omnes but rather, from one instance learn a little.

What this chapter explores among other things, therefore, are thephysical, mental and emotional links between colonial and post-colonialIndia personified by McWilliam and illustrated in part, but only in part,(his efforts were, in fact, polymerous) by his imperial efforts to bringsport to a remote area of northern India. It deals also with the responseto him in north Bengal during and after his time as an Indian CivilServant. Hopefully it captures something of the complexity of the socialinteraction between the colonizer and the colonized both during andafter the Raj.

Peter McWilliam was born on October 1st 1906 at Redcar inYorkshire. His upbringing was far from typical of most members of theIndian Civil Service. He attended a local primary school, a Londonsecondary school47 and London University, then spent some time at theUniversity in San Sebastian. Many members of the ICS went simply topublic school and 'Oxbridge'. Evans wrote as a matter of course of theyoung member of the ICS as a 'benevolent despot far away from thehalls of Oxford and Cambridge'.48

In 1930 as a recently recruited member of the ICS, McWilliam wastaken on a tour to the Jalpaiguri District, a vast region bordering themountains of Bhutan to the north. The beauty of the region entrancedhim. Later in life he recounted that he was 'completely enchanted' byit.49 The area remained fixed in his memory when to his disappoint-ment he was appointed Sub-Divisional Officer not to Jalpaiguri but toNew Alipore near Calcutta which was considered a prestigious posting,but when the opportunity came, swiftly and fortuitously, to transfer toAlipurduar in the Jalpaiguri District, he later recalled, 'I leapt at thechance . . . It was the beginning of many happy years'50 for him and formany of those who now became his administrative responsibility. Onanother occasion, he made his pleasure in the transfer transparentlyclear: 'In November 1932 (I think it was) I was to move to Alipore inthe 24 Perganas and when I acknowledged the receipt of the orderwhich came from Writers Buildings in Calcutta I ventured to say that Iwished it was to be Alipur Duar and not Alipore! To my joy (emphasisadded) that is what was decided and I was there until about February1934 when I was transferred to the Contai Subdivision of Midnapore

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District. And on yet another occasion he again described hisimmediate infatuation: 'I first went to Alipur Duar with the DeputyCommissioner of the Jalpaiguri District as long ago as 1931. It was abrief visit which included a day or so at Buxa but I liked what I saw verymuch and was delighted to be posted as SDO there in December1932.'52 Then, after a period in Contai in Midnapore in 1934, as notedabove, following home leave and marriage, he recalled, 'I was delightedto be posted again as SDO Alipur Duar'.53 In 1936 he left the town onappointment as Additional District Magistrate in Mymensingh.54

However, he later remembered that before, 'we moved to Mymensinghmy wife and I had a little school built not far from the courts and ourbungalow. It was then a Lower Primary School and bore our name. . . .Sometime later it became an Upper Primary School and then, as thenumber of pupils increased eventually a Middle English School and wewere so pleased that it eventually became a High English School andthat it still bore our name!'55 The photograph of McWilliam and hiswife, Roma, with the staff and children in front of the new school withits corrugated iron roof, became one of his most treasured possessions.The school was to be his most lasting contribution to the sub-continent.

In Alipurduar in 1935 schooling for young children was quiteinadequate and one of McWilliam's earliest actions was the establish-ment of his primary school. By 1936 he had raised enough money fromlocal families and friends to begin its construction and the followingyear the McWilliam Lower Primary School opened with fifty pupilsfrom six to ten years old.57 It was destined to be link with Indiabridging the eras of imperialism and post-imperialism. It has retainedhis name despite pressure to replace it with the name of an Indiannationalist sometime after independence. Indeed, McWilliam antici-pated this possibility. He wrote in 1997 to S.P. Chakraborty, the thenHeadmaster of the school: 'When Independence came, I felt sure thatthe name of the school would be changed to the Gandhi School or maybe the Nehru School, but to my joy it still bears our name.'58 In fact, anattempt was made to change the name of the school a few years afterindependence when Meher Chand Khanna, the Minister for Relief andRehabilitation was keen to provide a handsome grant to the schoolprovided the name was changed to commemorate a national leader.However, Nilkanta Mukherjee, the then Headmaster of the school, withfull support from his teachers and locals, modestly yet flatly refused theoffer. The nationalist homo novus failed to eradicate McWilliam from

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folk memory. He remained part of the iconic memory of Alipurduar-ians.

The foundation, as stated above, later became the McWilliam HighSchool59 under the able guidance of Nilkanta Mykherjee, a renownededucationist of contemporary north Bengal. Apart from the McWilliamSchool other educational establishments now bear McWilliam's name- a gesture of respect to his memory. McWilliam also seems to haveplayed an important part in the foundation of the McWilliam Institute,which was to become the cultural hub of the town. The area in whichboth school and institute were located came to be known as 'McWilliamGunje', roughly meaning 'McWilliam's place'.61

After the creation of the school, McWilliam ensured that modernsport developed both in the school and in the town. Sport was central tothe purpose of the school and remains an important part of school life.62

Here again McWilliam was unusual in the qualifications andexperiences he brought to the furtherance of games and the imperialgames ethic in this northern Bengal school and town. He was not apublic school or varsity sportsman, nor had he been gifted such abackground by his family. However, he had inherited a love of sport,especially association football, from his father,63 who had playedprofessionally for Newcastle United and Scotland, and later wasmanager of Middlesborough and Tottenham Hotspur.

McWilliam himself was an enthusiastic player of football andorganizer of games. He was a patron of Alipurduar Town Club forwhich he played football regularly. He established fixtures with teamsfrom the neighbouring towns of Mahakalguri, Jalpaiguri and Gaibandhaand from the neighbouring tea estates. The most satisfying games, asMcWilliam recalled later, were those resulting in victory over teamsfrom Coochbehar, which were put together by the Maharaja ofCoochbehar and sometimes included top players from Calcutta. Onone occasion, as the famous story has it, having been delayed at thecourthouse before a match against Coochbehar, McWilliam raced fromthe railway trolley (on which he has changed into his kit) through thespectators straight onto the pitch and after one minute scored a goal.Carolyn Nandy65, a close friend of the McWilliam's family in the late1990s when secretary of the Bristol Commonwealth Society, remembersMcWilliam's own version of the event: 'Peter himself loved, played andorganised football games in Alipurduar. He told a wonderful story ofbeing delayed in Court the day of a big 'away match'. Some one got

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hold of one of those trolleys that run on the railway tracks and, as ittrundled along at windy high speed, he changed his clothes, got to theground quite late, but joined in and made a winning goal - somethinglike that.'66

The Alipurduar Town Club67 was established in 1919 on theinitiative of a band of local men that included Haripada Mitra, DhirenBhowmik, Mina Ganguly and Kumud Kanti Mukherjee.68 The firstmajor football tournament organized by the club in Alipurduar was theMukunda Memorial Shield in 1929. However, it lasted for only twoyears. When McWilliam joined the Town Club in 1935, the club usedto play friendly matches against local teams, most notably theCoochbehar Raj team. When Manish Ray, a manager of the localMajherdabri Tea Estate gave a shield to perpetuate his father's memoryin 1940, McWilliam took up the challenge to organize a successfultournament under the auspices of the Town Club. This tournamentcame to be known as the Kulada Memorial Shield and from the veryfirst year attracted strong teams from neighbouring Gaibanda,Thakurga, Dinajpur and Coochbehar. It continued until 1947, theyear McWilliam left Jalpaiguri. During his fourteen years in AlipurduarMcWilliam also encouraged the development of other sports includingcricket, volleyball and athletics. The Town Club played friendly cricketmatches against teams representing Coochbehar and Rajabhatkhaoya.70

The army team from Coochbehar also visited the club regularly to playvolleyball.71 It was at McWilliam's inspiration that Jagannath Biswas72,a legendary local sportsman, promoted athletics in a systematic wayduring the 1946-47 season.73

McWilliam's enjoyment of physical effort can be also gauged from asomewhat different, yet interesting, angle. During his service as anSDO in Alipurduar it was not always possible to move about the districtby motorcar in those days as the weather and its associated landslidesoften made the roads impassable. On one river, for example, theapproach to the ferry was often washed away. Indeed, by no means allferries - notably in Kalajani - could carry cars. McWilliam was far fromdisconcerted. He was a good walker when required! He also made muchuse of his bicycle - and of his elephants. He had three elephants at hisdisposal - Lily, Kadam and Lalmani - all of whom he remembered inretirement with great fondness.74

In a sentence, McWilliam was as much a 'muscular ImperialAdministrator' as a muscular Christian. Although not a product of the

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English public school and 'Oxbridge' educational system and itsAthleticism cult75, he subscribed fully to the late nineteenth and earlytwentieth century middle class espousal of games for character training,adherence to the moral code implicit in the term 'fair play' and theinculcation of stoical self discipline. He was unquestionably ethno-centric in his belief in the moral virtues of the modern games so much apart of the period English public school.

He was also a shrewd imperialist who used sport as a means ofcontact, association and involvement to bring ruler and ruled togetherin informal settings in which trust could be established. Neverthelesspersonal consideration was as much responsible for his actions as moralconviction and management strategy. He had a strong, genuine andlasting affection for the people imperialism, however incongruously,placed in his charge. Thus he played with his charges, enjoyed playingwith them and encouraged them to take up modern sport for itsadvantages of health, pleasure and sociability. His motivation existed ona number of levels. This conclusion is not retrospective romanticism. Itis based on the responses of those who benefited from the resources hecreated in Alipurduar.

In sum, McWilliam's aim in encouraging the Alipurduarians to takeup modern sport was certainly in part to inculcate a sense of fair playand self-discipline, albeit Western style, in keeping with a genuinesubscription to the imperial games ethic, but also to promote their goodhealth and to provide new means of enjoyment and recreation.Furthermore McWilliam chose the Alipurduar Town Club as a meansof getting closer to the Indian. Unlike many of his contemporaries, whoused sport to exclude the Indian through the creation of segregated'English' clubs - of course, Parsees, Hindus and Muslims had theirsegregated clubs as well76 - McWilliam used a sports club to includehim.

Social conscience, moral conviction and commonsense pragmatismdictated his efforts 'to educate the locals . . . far beyond foundingschools. If he propagated the games ethic it must have been through hisfootball play and organization with the local Town Club'.77 His actionsinvite comparison with those of Tyndale Biscoe of Kashmir, who alsoused games to win the 'hearts and minds' of young Kashmiris78, andAlexander Garden Fraser, who employed the same means to the sameends in Sri Lanka (then British Ceylon).79 Despite many differences inthe historical context of their efforts, all three represent a continuity of

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sincere imperial concern in varied and changing circumstances in SouthAsia. Interestingly, while earlier resistance to playing football by theboys in Tyndale-Biscoe's Church Missionary Society School inSrinagar80 revealed an unwillingness to respond to new valuesassociated with western cultural imperialism, the later enthusiasticcooperation McWilliam experienced from child and adult alike inAlipurduar testifies to a transformed indigenous attitude. In India the1930s proved beyond doubt the acceptance of sports like football by theforces of colonialism, nationalism and communalism in their owninterests and for their own purposes.81

The popularization of football was complete in some parts of theregion by the time McWilliam arrived in north Bengal. However,there was work to do in this regard at Alipurduar and he successfullyundertook it. In doing so he created a bond with the Indian and Indiawhich lasted his lifetime and crossed the 'border' separating imperialistfrom post-imperialist with the result that, in the words of one Indian'McWilliam became something like a cult-figure in post-imperialAlipurduar . . . [his] spirit of work, vision and paternalistic attitude toIndians . . . made him a revered personality in the history ofAlipurduar.'83

In the attempt to explore McWilliam's deep love for a Bengal districtand its people and its relationship to their continued affection for him inthe post-colonial period, it is useful to consider merely one of hisactions during his period in office. Throughout the food shortages of1943, McWilliam travelled all over Jalpaiguri District to identify theareas of greatest need.84 In the severely hit areas of Sarubari,Sundardighi, Buchapara and Bebdaba, he organized the distributionof free food - the staples being dal, rice and brinjal, with a little ginger,and milk for the children. He later recalled how people were goinghungry while unscrupulous wholesalers were hoarding rice and forcingup prices. To counter this, he held meetings in the local market placesto state the correct prices to pay for rice, and at the same time set upfree kitchens for women and children and the elderly.85 This action wastypical of him as an administrator. He was paternalistic - indeed thesystem demanded it - but it was a paternalism born of a sense ofresponsibility and concern for his 'people' together with a compassionwhich grew out of genuine emotional ties with them. These qualitiesunderpinned his long-term efforts on their behalf - the creation ofschools, the establishment of cultural amenities and the introduction of

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modern sport and sports facilities. If he was the crown pinioncontrolling pulleys, logs, and counterbalance, the system dictated it.

His involvement with India did not end with his retirement from theICS and departure from the sub-continent in 1947. He returned in 1951to work for the India Tea Association: ' . . . I could not resist thetemptation to return to India - this time with the Indian TeaAssociation in Assam not Bengal. I was there until 1962 .. ,'86 In 1961McWilliam and his wife made a final visit from Assam to Alipurduar:'We were received in a most kindly way, saw the McWilliam Instituteetc. and it was so good again to meet quite a few people who had knownus in our days there.'87 He had remained keenly interested in thetown. It is no exaggeration to state that McWilliam had become anadored figure in Alipurduar and it is understandable that he waswelcomed with warm affection.89

In 1962 McWilliam settled permanently in Bristol. He kept in touchwith Alipurduar affairs until the mid-1960s through Kali DayalMukherjee, who had been his Bench Clerk at Alipurduar Court andwho was persuaded to join his staff in Calcutta during McWilliam'speriod of office as Labour Commissioner of Bengal. He then lost touchwith Mukherjee for a number of years ° and after his departure fromAssam he lost touch not only with Alipurduar but also with theMcWilliam School. In fact, all contact might have been lost but forK.N. Sircar, who had been a colleague in the ITA.91 It was throughSircar that in 1992 McWilliam was reunited with the McWilliamSchool, his beloved institution, and Jalpaiguri, his beloved workplace:'all their happy thoughts and memories seemed to be in and ofJalpaiguri .. .'9 He was astonished to hear from Sircar of the honour,respect and esteem which he still enjoyed as late as the 1990s, so longafter his departure from Bengal. Moreover, he was surprised to learnthat his creation retained his name.93 This news gave him immensepleasure. He immediately contacted the then Headmaster, DrSamirendra Prasad Chakraborty, to enquire about the school's standing,progress and future plans: 'I have been meaning to write to you forsometime now in the hope that you would in reply be kind enough tobring me up to date about Alipur Duar and those of the people I knewthere many years ago.' He added, 'Please do write and bring us up todate about what has always been our favourite place in India and whereso many people we were happy to know, lived.'94 It was the start of a'reunion' that lasted until his death in 1999.

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Dr Chakraborty was delighted to hear from the school's founder andprovided details of the school as it approached the Millennium.Unfortunately, for personal reasons, McWilliam could not accept theschool's invitation to be present at the celebration of its fiftiethanniversary in 1993. This was a matter of great regret to him and to hisadmirers in Alipurduar. He replied to the invitation as follows: ' . . .believe me when I tell you that nothing would make me happier than avisit to Alipur Duar after so many years, but for various seasonal andprivate reasons I regret that I cannot guarantee to do so.96 The news ofthe successful 'Inaugural Ceremony' of the school's Golden Jubileepleased him greatly.97 He consoled himself for not being able to attendthe event with the reports that students at the school had doneremarkably well during the jubilee year, 'not only in publicexaminations but also in sports and games'98 - a response that revealsMcWilliam's continuing belief in the importance of sport in education.

In all his correspondence with the Headmaster of the school duringhis years of retirement, he invariably referred to the institution as 'ourschool'.99 His sense of joint ownership was fully reciprocated. Laterschools in Alipurduar, as already noted, had been given his name as amark of affection, appreciation and respect. In due course he wasprovided with an album of photographs of his own and later schoolsbearing his name. He wrote in reaction: 'It is quite amazing for us to seethe huge pictures of the school as it now is and we shall be arranging forthem to be framed. I so much wish that India and above all Alipur Duarare not as far away and that it would cost so much for us to reach it fromBristol. Perhaps we will one day be lucky enough to win a useful prizein the weekly lottery we now have here.'100 Shortly before his death in1999 he expressed the wish to donate 500 pounds to be invested forfuture benefit of the original McWilliam School.101 It was his intentionthat two able students in difficult financial circumstances be awardedscholarships from the interest. After his death his wife, Roma, foundedthe McWilliam Memorial Fund to perpetuate her husband's mem-ory102. The money was given to the Headmaster in May 2001103 and in2002 two students benefited from the annual interest that accrued to theFund.104

The donation in response to McWilliam's wishes in the last years ofhis life, symbolizes an enduring relationship with Alipurduar that lastedmuch his adult life. It was far more than a professional relationship anddid not end with the end of his career in the Indian Civil Service. It

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Imperial and Post-imperial Congruence All

constituted a commitment, an affection and a responsibility thatoutlived an imperial career and imperial era.

It was in the same letter to Dr Chakraborty expressing pleasure at theGolden Jubilee celebrations - 'it was of course, good to learn that the'Inaugural Ceremony' of your Golden Jubilee was a happy success andmy wife and I only wish we could have been there with you' - thatMcWilliam expressed shock at the news that the floods that ravagedNorth-East of India in 1993 had done great damage to the school: 'itgreatly upsets us to learn that such appalling damage has been done towhat we still think as 'our school' and what had been so long ago a placewhere we had been so happy.'106 Now in advanced old age he tried hisbest over the next few years to 'find a source of money to pay for theflood damage caused to "our school'".107 Some time later he expressedsatisfaction at the news of the Government of West Bengal's muchdelayed financial assistance towards the repair and further developmentof the school.108 He, himself, was also successful in persuading theBristol Commonwealth Society (BCS), of which he was a member, todonate funds to assist in development of the school. In this CarolynNandy, the then Secretary of the BCS played a crucial role.109 TheChairman of the BCS, John Parsloe, proposed that the School bedesignated the Society's charitable cause for 1998. The BCS asked whatassistance would be most helpful and the school asked for 'scientificequipment'. A supplier was contacted in Calcutta through one ofNandy's scientific friends, Prof. Byomkesh Biswas. Carolyn Nandy andher Bengali husband Dr Sekhar Nandy took part in a 'handing overceremony' in August 1998.110 The gift proved useful in reequipping thetwo science laboratories worst affected by the flood.

In what appears to be McWilliam's last letter to Dr Chakraborty atthe age of ninety, McWilliam remarked upon the photographs of theschool that he was expecting to arrive at any time: 'What an amazingnumber of McWilliam schools we shall be seeing and we are excited atthe prospect of... photos of what was our happy home and the buildingwhere I did my work' and he added this final comment: 'I have searchedall over our house hoping to find a photograph of us taken when wewere younger which I could send to you but have not been able to findone. And now I am 90 years old and don't quite look the same as when Iwas playing football for the Alipur Duar team.'112

Today, it is fitting that there is a framed photograph of McWilliamand his wife on the wall of the Headmaster's study at the McWilliam

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School.113 There is much that is unknown about McWilliam, theimperial administrator - the full extent of his support for imperialism,the precise nature of his subscription to period racial certainties, theexact limits of his racial tolerance - but there is enough known abouthim to suggest that he was in several respects a positive agent of changewho, among other things, used modern sport as a means of ensuringthat he was a competent administrator, caring, approachable, engagingand engaged.

These qualities enabled him to ensure, at least to a degree,constructive continuity between the imperial and post-imperial world.At least in his case, it would appear that residual hostility to theimperialist was avoided. To any analysis of the role of the Britishimperialist he adds a subtlety that can only assist in the construction ofa fully accurate record of the imperial administration on the Indian sub-continent. It has been argued that the 'consideration of the nature ofsport as an imperial bond . . . between dominant and subordinate groups. . . provides the opportunity 'to place the grand and theoreticaldiscourses of colonial knowledge and control in the context of theiroften partial and ironic realizations".114 It also provides the opportunityto locate evidence of variation in the approach to control and evidenceof the complexity of implementation that the imperialist coulddemonstrate. McWilliam can be numbered among the 'missionariesof civilization'115 - a reformer who strove to modernize Indian society.Prior to and after independence, of course, many Indians undertook thesame tasks. Often, from different perspectives, therefore, Englishmanand Indian shared a common purpose.

It is too easy 'to dismiss the cultural 'onslaught' taking place withinthe framework of [imperial] cultural expansion as simply anexpression of western arrogance and thus to lose a perspective . . .by focusing on the apparatuses of domination of the colonial state andthe entrenchment of western capitalism.'116 Thus it is valuable 'tolook beyond the immediacy of imperial domination to the longer termreality of the struggle towards post-colonial autonomy' within theframework of globalization, and to recommend the removal of thisstruggle from 'its exclusively Eurocentric context . . . placing it in a

1 1 R

broader world history'. From this perspective, in the point andcounterpoint of imperial debate, imperialism may be viewed as onecontribution to the extension of modernity.119 In India, howeverobliquely, it provided the evolutionary symbolism of both individu-

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alism and democracy, albeit imperfectly, through western educationand its literature, thus assisting in the creation of 'a 'plurality ofmodernities' in the contemporary world'.120 In this process McWil-liam, albeit a relatively Lilliputian figure in the structure of the Raj, asadministrator and educator, should be counted a facilitator. Hiscontribution to northern Bengal is no micawberesque myth but apragmatic narrative. He considered education a source of personalimprovement, a means of social mobility, an instrument of enhancedindividual and collective well-being and believed that sport was partof these aims. He had a role in linking past and present on the sub-continent and assisting India in its entry into the era of globalization.To record these efforts is of incremental importance in constructing acomplete record of the Raj.

Furthermore, if McWilliam did not preach communal inclusion,121

he practised it, although undoubtedly 'the exigencies of political andeconomic interests' would not have allowed its fullest expression.

His career provides evidence of the crossing 'borders' and it allowsconsideration of the complexity of the spread within the Empire ofmodern sport, which is now so significant in modern life. He was animperial administrator and the role of the administrator in this diffusionhas been too little noticed and recorded. His involvement in India andhis interaction with Indians spanned imperial and post-imperial eras; hebridged the gap between dependence and independence. He shows thatsimplistic stereotyping of the actors in the imperial drama should bemodified in the interests of greater accuracy. He demonstrates that it issometimes necessary to twist the colonial kaleidoscope to create afresher and fuller image.

In the final analysis his memory of his Indian administrative careerbecame a 'darling remembrance'. Years later in 1993 in a letter to thethen Headmaster he summed up his intense feelings for Alipurduar andits people: 'I am sure you now realize that of all the places we know inBengal and what is now Bangladesh it is of Alipurduar that we have thehappiest memories.'123 He also left behind happy memories: 'Amongthe small band of British civil servants who are remembered withreverence in India, even today, is Peter McWilliam . . . he had anenduring love of North Bengal and particularly Alipur Duar . . . Heconsidered his time there not only to have been the best time of his lifebut the greatest privilege of his life.'124 He remembered India withaffection and was remembered in India with affection.125

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This was not simply post-imperial generosity on the part of theIndians. It spanned both the imperial and post-imperial periods. Asearly as 1938 on McWilliam's departure from Alipurduar to a new ICSposting, the Members of the Managing Committee for the FinalPrimary School expressed 'overwhelming sorrow' at his departure fromthe school 'with which your name has been indissolubly bound up'.They remarked also that the school owed 'all that was necessary for itsorganization and up-to-date progress' to him and they added that hehad 'fully won their hearts' and that he was 'a man whom to know is tolove and adore'.126 Then in 1962 in appreciation of McWilliam's gift ofbooks, the Managing Committee of the McWilliam Institute establishedat his instance in 1945 and of which he remained a patron, sent himextracts, 'for favour of his information' from a meeting after the arrivalof the books, which read: 'The Committee desired the Secretary toconvey to Mr McWilliam that the people of Alipurduar shall everremember him for his love of Alipurduar and for what he did for thisplace.'127 Finally in 1992 Dr S. P. Chakraborty wrote: 'One thing Imust say. People of Alipurduar still consider Mr P.N. McWilliam asone of their benevolent friends, educators and social reformers, not as amere administrator.'128 There is a genuine sincerity which shinesthrough these comments.

Certainly a part of the remembrance is his role in the introduction ofthe imperial games ethic to Alipurduar, and his contribution to thegrowth of the games that are now part and parcel of the culture ofmodern India. In this way he helped forge a lasting cultural bondbetween imperial and independent India. In any iconography ofimperial decency he deserves a mention. He was far from being amalefic imperialist. Harold Perkin once remarked that 'sport played apart in holding the Empire together and also paradoxically, inemancipating the subject nations from tutelage'.129 but equallyimportantly, according to him, 'it helped the Empire to decolonize ona friendlier basis than any other in the world's history .. .'13°. Thesecomments are perhaps nowhere more pertinent than in the case of PeterMcWilliam, as is this comment: 'Decolonization, in fact, can bearwitness to a strengthening rather than a weakening of culturalassociations. Thus the colonial past can be visible in the postcolonialpresent in various forms. Acculturation can result in the birth of a newculture which includes the elements of the past and the present.Subscription to an inflexible belief in an automatic conflict between the

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traditional and the modern can be naive. Reality can be a great dealmore complex.'131

'The British Empire', it has been observed, with some veracity, 'mayhave vanished from the map, but it has not entirely vanished from themind . . . some of its structures still endure',132 while Lawrence Jameshas stated bluntly: 'Quite simply the Raj cannot be disinvented, and itsconsequences, from a passion for cricket to a faith in democracy, remaindeeply rooted in Indian soil.'133 To echo James again, this briefconsideration of one imperial administrator, it is hoped 'will strengthenthe bonds between Britons and Indians and make them look again attheir common past without shame and recrimination'134 and, it mightbe added, with a proper appreciation1 of a constructive continuitybetween past and present.

NOTES

We are most grateful to Dr S.P. Chakraborty, ex-Headmaster of the McWilliam H.S. School,Alipurduar; Mr Sudhangshu Biswas, present Headmaster of the School; Mr Amlan Ghosh,Assistant Teacher of the School; Mr Anirban Mukherjee, lecturer in Philosophy in the NorthBengal University; Mr Indranil Chatterjee, lecturer in History, Alipurduar College; Dr ShekharNandy and Mrs. Carolyn Nandy, for their kind and invaluable help in collating the materials forthis chapter and Mr Pallab Ghosh, Librarian at Alipurduar College for his invaluable assistance inlocating research material. We thank both the McWilliam family in Bristol and the McWilliamSchool authorities at Alipurduar for their kind permission to see the letters exchanged betweenthem since 1992 and Michael Williams, in particular, for his interest and assistance. Finally weexpress a special thanks to Doris Mangan for her invaluable editorial advice and assistance.

1. Lawrence James, Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India (London: Little Brown andCompany, 1997), p.642.

2. See Jane Goodman and Jane Martin, 'Introduction: 'Gender', 'Colonialism', 'Politics' and'Experience': Challenging and Troubling Histories of Education' in Jane Goodman and JaneMartin (eds.), Gender, Colonialism and Education: The Politics of Experience (London: WoburnPress, 2002), pp. 1-22.

3. Ibid., p.1.4. Ibid.5. See Hubert Evans, Looking Back on India (London: Frank Cass, 1988), Preface.6. Goodman and Martin, 'Introduction', p.6.7. Jane Goodman, 'Their Market Value must be Greater for the Experience they have Gained:

Secondary School Headmistresses and Empire, 1897-1914', in Goodman and Martin,Gender, Colonialism and Education, pp. 188-9.

8. David Cannadine, Ornamentalism (London: Allan Lane The Penguin Press, 2001), pp.xiv-xv.In the following brief consideration of Cannadine's stimulating analysis there is not space todo full justice to the delicate subtlety of his arguments. For his fuller consideration of theissues see especially his Preface and Prologue.

9. Ibid., p.xv.10. Ibid.11. Ibid., p.xvi.12. Ibid.13. Ibid.

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14. Ibid., p.xviii.15. Ibid.16. Ibid.17. Ibid., p.xix.18. Ibid., p.xx.19. Ibid.20. Ibid.21. Evans, Looking Back on India, p.8.22. Ibid.23. Cannadine, Ornamentalism, p.5.24. Ibid., p.8.25. See J.A. Mangan, The Games Ethic and Imperialism: Aspects of the Diffusion of an Ideal

(London: Frank Cass, 1998), Chapter 7. See also J.A. Mangan and Fan Hong (eds.), Sport inAsian Society: Past and Present (London: Frank Cass, 2003), pp.11, 66.

26. For a discussion of imperial stereotyping, see J.A. Mangan (ed.), The Imperial Curriculum:Racial Images and Education in British Colonial Experience (London: Routledge, 1993). Seeespecially J.A. Mangan, 'Images for confident control: stereotypes in imperial discourse',pp.6-22.

27. Allen Guttmann, Games and Empires: Modern Sports and Cultural Imperialism (New York:Columbia University Press, 1994), p.2.

28. Ibid.29. Ibid., p.172.30. Ibid., p. 174.31. Ibid., pp.176-7.32. Ibid., p. 178.33. Ibid., p. 179.34. Ibid., p.187.35. Ibid., p.9.36. Ibid., pp.32-3.37. Peter McWilliam's Career:

Indian Civil Service (1930-1947)1930-1941 Subdivisional OfficerDeputy CommissionerDistrict MagistrateSpecial Officer, Home Department. Government of Bengal responsible for the creation ofcivil defence schemes in towns and industrial areas vulnerable to Japanese attack.Labour Commissioner (Registration of Trade Unions, Conciliations between Employers andTrade Unions, Proposal of labour legislation).UK1947-1950 Development Commission and Research Council, London.INDIALabour Advisor to the Assam Branch of the Indian Tea Association.Secretary of the Assam Branch of the Indian Tea Association.UKSecretary of the Commonwealth Club, Clifton, Bristol.Thanks are expressed to Michael Williams for this information.

38. The efforts of Lord Harris to promote communal harmony through cricket, and much elseinvolving the politics of Indian cricket, in the colonial period are superbly described withsophisticated originality in Boria Majumdar, 'Cricket in Colonial India, 1850-1947', thesissubmitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Oxford, spring 2004, and seealso his forthcoming monograph based on the thesis which includes a brief description of theevolution of Indian cricket up to the present, From Middle Class Maidans to GlobalCapitalism: Cricket in Colonial India, forthcoming in the series Sport in the Global Society(Routledge). See also his Twenty Two Yards to Freedom: A Social History of Indian Cricket(Penguin/Viking), commissioned by the Board of Cricket Control in India, forthcoming in2004.

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39. Guttmann, Games and Empires, pp.33-4.40. Mangan and Fan, Sport in Asian Society: Past and Present, p.1.41. Ibid., pp. 11-13.42. Roger Hutchinson, Empire Games: The British Invention of Twentieth Century Sport

(Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1996), p.15.43. See note 38 above.44. See J.A. Mangan, Athleticism in the Victorian and Edwardian Public School; the emergence and

consolidation of an educational ideology (London: Frank Cass, 2000); see J.A. Mangan, 'Ethicsand Ethnocentricity: Imperial Education in British Tropical Africa' in William J. Baker andJames A. Mangan (eds.), Sport in Africa: Essays in Social History (New York: Holmes andMeier, 1987), pp.138-71.

45. Stephen G. Weiting (ed.), Sport and Memory in North America (London: Frank Cass, 2001),Series Editor's Foreword, p.x.

46. Evans, Looking Back on India, p. 12.47. Peter McWilliam attended Tottenham County School 1918-1925, where he was an able

scholar and footballer. Telephone discussion with Michael Williams, 7 January 2004.48. Evans, Looking Back on India, p.7.49. This was Mc William's first visit when he accompanied the then Deputy Commissioner of the

Jalpaiguri District. Letter from McWilliam to 'The Principal' of the McWilliam School,Alipurduar, 10 October 1992; also 'Obituary', The Daily Telegraph, 2 September 1999, p.27(hereinafter Obituary).

50. Interview with Michael Williams, published in the Calcutta daily The Statesman, 14 August1998 under the title 'Memories of Another Day', p.1.

51. Letter from McWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 15 October 1993.52. Letter from McWilliam to 'The Principal', 10 October 1992.53. Ibid.54- In 1950 McWilliam wrote a succinct description of his work between 1930 and 1941m a letter

dated 13 December 1950 to the Director of Recruitment, Colonial Office, London, requestingconsideration for a post in the Colonies:I entered the Indian Civil Service in 1929, and was in Bengal from 1930 until 1947. Most ofmy time was spent in the Districts, first as Sub-Divisional Officer and Magistrate, then asDistrict Officer. In the former capacity I was trying criminal cases, hearing civil suits andcontrolling the work of magisterial, revenue and police officers subordinate to me. I wasresponsible for the work of all Government Departments within the Sub Division and anumber of school, hospital and co-operative society committees. As District Officer I wasresponsible for the maintenance of law and order over anything from 2,000 to 3,000 squaremiles of the Province. I heard appeals in certain criminal cases and exercised authority over anumber of Sub-Divisional Officers. In one of my Districts were located most of Bengal's teaestates: in another were nearly all Bengal's coal mines and her biggest steel works: a third wasa jute and rice growing area. Each presented a variety of problems and in each the DistrictOfficer was either the Chairman or a member of all important committees. During the war hisduties included the rationing of patrol, tires and certain foodstaffs and for all these purposesthe staff controlled numbered some 300 or more officers and clerks.

55. 'There was no proper school for young children in Alipurduar for which there was an urgentneed. My wife and I set about raising money in 1936 to build a school and find good staff. Byearly 1937 we had enough money to start due to the generosity of many local families andfriends. It was opened that year with 50 students between the age of six and ten years old.'The Statesman, 14 August 1998. See also letter from McWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 4September 1997.

56. Roma, his wife, remarked, 'a photograph of the staff and children together with us (Peter andmyself with our baby daughter Janice on my lap) in front of the wooden school with thecorrugated iron roof is one of my treasured possessions.' Interview in The Statesman, 14August 1998. This photograph is considered by the school authorities to be a preciousinheritance. It hangs in the Headmaster's Study. It is reproduced the chapter.

57. The McWilliam Upper Primary School was first upgraded to Junior High school withMuhammed Rahim Saheb as its first Headmaster. In 1944 it was upgraded again to become

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the McWilliam High School with Nilkanta Mukherjee as Headmaster. A statue of Mukherjeewas erected at the school on his retirement (in fact, after his death) to make his distinguishedcontribution to the growth of the school which now has over one thousand students.

58. Letter from McWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 4 September 1997.59. McWilliam High School: A Few Lines

Dr Samirendra Prasad ChakrabortyEx-Headmaster, McWilliam High School.McWilliam High School is a golden name in the education of Alipurduar subdivision. PeterN McWilliam, SDO of Alipurduar, founded the school in 1937 as primary school at the sameplace where the present school is situated now. After a few years, the primary school wasupgraded to Junior High school and Md. Rahim Saheb took charge as its headmaster. In 1944McWilliam Junior High School was upgraded to the McWilliam High School due to theinitiative of Nilkanta Mukherjee, a renowned educationist of north Bengal. Mukherjee alsobecame the headmaster of the school until 1969. Mukherjee dedicated his life to spreadingeducation among the illiterate people of the town and worked hard to improve the lives of theunderprivileged in the area. He not only established the McWilliam High School but alsofounded McWilliam Junior and Senior Basic School, Aravinda Nagar High School andAlipurduar Collegiate School. Moreover, he was instrumental in the creation of AlipurduarCollege. He donated about 80 bighas of McWilliam School land for the establishment of thecollege.As for the teaching staff of the school, quality and efficiency have remained the main criteriafor their appointment. Among the teachers, Mr. Bhabesh Moitra, former Chairman of WestBengal Board of Secondary Education and Mr. Dinesh Lakra, former Honourable StateMinister, Govt. of West Bengal, deserve special mention. The list of meritorious studentsover the years is too long to mention here. Many of them have gone on to undertake higherstudies abroad and have became scholars of some renown.In games and sports, the school has maintained a proud record in north Bengal. In the earlypart of 1960, the school was upgraded to a Higher Secondary School. In 1993 the schoolcelebrated its Golden Jubilee by organizing a series of cultural programmes.The above is an adapted version of a brief history of the school written for KausikBandyopadhyay. It augments note 57.

60. These include McWilliam Junior High School and McWilliam Junior Basic School. Otherinstitutions in Alipurduar also bear his name, see note 61.

61. 'The whole educational area is now called McWilliam Gunje which being translated meanssomething like McWilliam's place.' Funeral Address by Michael Williams, 5 August 1999.

62. 'McWilliam School even today sets a much higher standard ahead of many other institutionsin north Bengal not only in terms of academic results, but in manners, moral values, extra-curricular activities, especially sport and games.' Telephone discussion between S.P.Chakraborty and Kausik Bandyopadhyay, 5 January 2004.

63. His father, also called Peter, was a rarity in the early part of the twentieth century — a greatplayer who became a great manager. He won 8 Scottish caps: versus England in 1905, 06, 07,09, and 10, and versus Wales in 1907 and 09. He was born in Banffshire on 8 December 1880or 22 September 1878 and died on 1 October 1951. He played for Albion Rovers, InvernessThistle and Newcastle United. He retired due to injury in 1911 and was manager ofTottenham Hotspur 1912-1927, then manager of Middlesborough 1927-1934. He was anArsenal consultant and scout in 1934 (close season) and again manager of Tottenham Hotspur1938-1942, when he retired. He died in Redcar. He was an F.A. Cup winner in 1910, an F.A.Cup finalist in 1905, 06 and 08 and won club honours with Newcastle United, FootballLeague Champions in 1905, 07 and 09. When he joined Middlesborough as manager he wasthe games' highest paid administrator at 1000 pounds per year. He was awarded the FootballLeague Long Service Medal in 1939. See D. Lamming, Who's Who of ScottishInternationalists 1872-1972 (London: Association of Football Statisticians, 1982), part 3,p.41. Thanks are expressed to Dr Colm Hickey for this information.

64. For an interesting discussion of the Maharajas of Coochbehar and their contribution toIndian sport at various times in the twentieth century see Majumdar, 'Cricket in ColonialIndia', pp.145, 150, 161, 165-6, 199. See also Chapter-2, entitled 'Maharajas and Cricket:

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Self, State, Province and Nation', pp.39-90 for a wider discussion of the Indian Maharajasand their role in the development of cricket.

65. Carolyn Nandy met Peter McWilliam early in 1997 and subsequently visited the McWilliamSchool in August of the same year where she discovered the extent of the respect andaffection in which he was still held. She wrote later in an e-mail dated 1 December 2003 toKausik Bandyopadhyay:

I am delighted to have a chance to relate the history of my friendship with PeterMcWilliam as there is a certain 'fairytale' quality to it and I sincerely believe the quality ofthe last two years of his life were enhanced by it.In January 1997 I took up the post of Secretary of the Bristol Commonwealth Society. Themembership there was dwindling, as it mainly consisted of former British Colonial civilservants, teachers, professionals etc. Regular social functions took place there, which werepart of my job to organise. My first such soon came along on a cold February evening. Itwas a get-together and meal for Commonwealth students, especially new Bristol Universitystudents, to meet the members. First to arrive was Peter. I greeted him in the hall,introduced myself, and in a chatting way asked where he had worked abroad. You couldhave knocked me over with a feather when he replied: 'Jalpaiguri'.I told him I went there ever year because my family home and Bengali relatives are thereetc. He was also amazed. No one he'd spoken to in the last 40 years had ever heard ofJalpaiguri.He told me he had started his Magistrate's training with a year in Jalpaiguri town, sitting inthe law courts (in about 1934), where he lived in the now DCs house and where one of hisjobs was to weed and tidy the tombstones and church garden across the road (St Francis's,I think). Actually most of his time after that and after marriage was spent in Alipurduar,Jalp. District. By choice, he requested to return there when given a transfer.He said that he had started a small primary school in about 1937, and had often wonderedwhat had happened to it. I told him I would find out.On the phone, my brother-in-law, Vaskar Nandy, told us there was a big McWilliamHigher Secondary School in Alipurduar Town, that he had passed many times. How bigwas 'big'? Over a 1000 students! And that it was having/or had just had some Jubileecelebrations. Peter was delighted with this information, and very happy that I promised tovisit the school when I was next in Jalpaiguri. This we did in August 1997. We hired a vanto go there. After more than halfway we were turned back by a tea workers demonstration,but tried again a few days later and reached the school successfully.My first impression was how marvellous the huge trees at the front of the school looked,with hundreds of bicycles parked underneath them. This was obviously not the primaryschool started by Peter, but we found many institutions in the town bore his name and that hisname and person seemed to be viewed with warmth and respect. (Emphasis added).

66. Obituary; telephone discussion with Michael Williams, 7 January 2004; e-mail from CarolynNandy to Kausik Bandyopadhyay, 1 December 2003. There is an even more colourful andcomplete version of this occasion: 'On one occasion there was an important match against ateam put together by the maharaja of Cooch Bihar. On that day Peter's court cases werebehind time and he missed the train to the town where the match was to be played. Not to beout done Peter requisitioned a 4 wheeled rail trolley [rather like a raft on wheels] to take himto the match . . . Two of his Indian colleagues pushed the drive handles up and downpropelling the vehicle along the railway track, while Peter changed into his football gear.The match was 5 minutes into the first half when the trolley pulled up on a section of thetrack nearest to the football pitch. As Peter ran towards the pitch the crowd divided tolet him through. The Alipur Duar supporters roared their support. Within the first minutePeter scored the only goal for his team. Alas Cooch Bihar won 2-1.' Funeral Address byMichael Williams, 5 August 1999. A letter to McWilliam from A.K. Pakrashi dated 10 June1993 written at the age of 69 provides fascinating details of McWilliam's teammates in theAlipurduar Town Club. McWilliam played right wing. The left wing was Kiron Ganguly;'insiders' Durgadas Ganguly and Anil Mukherjee; centre-forward Haripada Mitra; 'halves'Mina Ganguly, Kalidas Ganguly and Gurudas Mukherjee; 'backs' Pankari Gupta Bhaya(typist in McWilliam's office) and Khudi Mukherjee (a brother of the late Headmaster of the

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McWilliam School Nilkanta Mukherjee) and goalkeeper Govinda Mukherjee. KironGanguly, Anil Mukherjee, Pankari Gupta Bhaya and Khudi Mukherjee were still alive in1993.

67. No documents covering the complete history of the club have survived. However it ispossible to have a glimpse of its early history from a few souvenirs published by the club inthe 1990s on the occasions of Durga Puja, the greatest religio-cultural festival of the Bengalis.Another useful piece is 'Mohakumar Kheladhula' ('Games and Sports of the Subdivision')collated by Kalyan Hore on the basis of interviews and discussions with sportsmen and sportsenthusiasts of Alipurduar since the 1940s, published in Matir Chhoya, special issue onAlipurduar, Vol.21, No.15 (1995), pp.177-88, 201

68. All of them were respectable gentlemen of contemporary Alipurduar town, who took anactive interest in modern sport and games. Haripada Mitra and Dhiren Bhownik werereputed barristers at the Alipurduar Court. Bhowmik later became the Chairman ofAlipurduar Municipality. Kumud Kanti Mukherjee, on the other hand, was a hunter of somerepute.

69. Interview of Jagannath Biswas, a renowned veteran player of Town Club, 4 September 2003,in Kalyan Hore, 'Mohakumar Kheladhula', pp. 177-8.

70. Interview of Kalu Biswas, brother of Jagannath Biswas and a famous footballer of his time inAlipurduar, in Kalyan Hore, 'Mohakumar Kheladhula', p. 178.

71. Ibid.72. Jagannath Biswas remains a legendary figure in Alipurduar for more feats than one. He came

from a rich aristocratic family of the town. An M.A. in English he was a renowned poet, adistinguished painter, an excellent speaker, a prolific writer, an environmentalist and above alla great sportsman. He was not only a good player of football and cricket, but, moreimportantly, an able organizer of modern sports in the Jalpaiguri district. He also initiated themountaineering movement in north Bengal and established the Mountaineering Rovers Clubin Alipurduar, the first of its kind in Bengal.

73. Interview of Jagannath Biswas, in Kalyan Hore, 'Mohakumar Kheladhula', p.178.74. Letter from McWilliam to 'The Principal', 10 October 1992.75. For a detailed discussion of this extraordinary phenomenon which was largely responsible in

the first instance for the spread of much of modern sport throughout the Empire see Mangan,Athleticism and Mangan, The Games Ethic and Imperialism.

76. It is certainly the case that Bombay Parsees, Hindus and Muslims did that same with theresult that the 'communal organization of sport often resulted in ill feeling among the rivalcommunities'. See Majumdar, 'Cricket in Colonial India', pp.114-5.

77. Telephone discussion between S.P. Chakraborty and Kausik Bandyopadhyay, 5 January2004.

78. Tyndale Biscoe was a committed advocate of games ethic in South Asia. A culturaldiffusionist of great interest, he took the physical activities of the English public school,wrapped them in a packaging of moral certitude and introduced them successfully to a hostilepeople in Kashmir. Tyndale Biscoe's experiences set out in his own works. These includeCharacter Building in Kashmir (London: Church Missionary Society, 1920), Tyndale-Biscoe ofKashmir: An Autobiography (Seeley Service & Co., 1951) and Grinding Grit into Kashmir(London: Church Missionary Society, 1922); but for a recent overview see Mangan, TheGames Ethic and Imperialism, especially chapter 7, pp. 168-92.

79. Alexander Garden Fraser was cast in much the same mold as Cecil Earle Tyndale-Biscoe. Hetook the games ethic to East Africa, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and West Africa. See Mangan,Chapters One and Two in Mangan and Fan, Sport in Asian Society: Past and Present. See also'Ethics and Ethnocentricity', pp.138-71, especially pp.148-52.

80. See Mangan, The Games Ethic and Imperialism, Chapter 7. See also J.A. Mangan, 'Soccer asMoral Training: Missionary Intentions and Imperial Legacies' in Paul Dimeo and JamesMills (eds.), Soccer in South Asia: Empire, Nation and Diaspora (London: Frank Cass, 2001),pp. 45-9, 53-4.

81. For a recent discussion of this phenomenon, regrettably not without factual errors, see PaulDimeo, 'Football and Politics in Bengal: Colonialism, Nationalism, Communalism' in PaulDimeo and James Mills (eds.), Soccer in South Asia, pp. 57-74. For a more accurate

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Imperial and Post-imperial Congruence All

discussion see Boria Majumdar, review essay of Paul Dimeo and James Mills (eds.), Soccer inSouth Asia in International Journal of the History of Sport, Vol.19, No.4, Dec. 2002, pp.205-10. More especially see Boria Majumdar, 'The Politics of Soccer in Colonial India 1930-37:The Years of Turmoil', Soccer and Society, Vol.3, No.1, Spring 2002, pp. 22-36. For a fullerconsideration of the issues see Boria Majumdar and Kausik Bandyopadhyay, Kick Off toLiberation: A History of Indian Football (Taylor and Francis: forthcoming). For an analysis ofthe character of footballing nationalism in colonial Bengal, see Kausik Bandyopadhyay, 'Race,Nation and Sport: Footballing Nationalism in Colonial Calcutta', Soccer and Society, Vol.4,No.1 Spring 2003, pp. 1-19. The relation between football and communalism has been dealtwith in Kausik Bandyopadhyay, 'Barnabaisamya, Sampradayikata o Krirasatta: OupanibeshikKolkatay Football Sanskritir Chalchitra' in Gautam Chattopadhyay (ed.), Itihas Anusandhan-17 (Kolkata: Firma KLM, 2003), pp. 554-64.

82. Football's popularization in Bengal began in the last two decades of the nineteenth century.After Mohun Bagan's historic IFA Shield victory in 1911, it became an integral part ofBengali's popular culture. For further details, see Boria Majumdar, 'The Vernacular inSports History', Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXXVII, No.29 (2002), pp. 3069-75;also see Kausik Bandyopadhyay, 'Race, Nation and Sport'.

83. Telephone discussion between S.P. Chakraborty and Kausik Bandyopadhyay, 5 January2004.

84. Obituary; see also interview, The Statesman.85. Ibid; see also extracts from McWilliam's diary for October 1943 in the possession of Michael

Williams.86. Letter from McWilliam to the 'Principal', 10 October 1992.87. Ibid.88. His letters to S.P. Chakraborty, his interview in The Statesman and the letters from Indians in

this chapter make this clear over and over again.89. No better evidence of this can be found than that in the references in notes 126, 127, 128.90. McWilliam refers to this gap in contact, letter to the 'Principal', 10 October 1992. He

attempted to make contact again after meeting Carolyn Nandy (see note 65). In the letter of10 October 1992 he explained that he completely lost touch with Alipurduar after the deathof his much loved Indian friend 'Kali Babu' in 1967. McWilliam wrote, 'I kept in touch withKali Dayal Muckerjee who had been my Bench Clerk and when I was Labour Commissionerin Calcutta I persuaded him to join my staff there. After a while Kali Babu, as I then knowhim, decided he was not keen on life in Calcutta, so returned to Alipur Duar.'

91. Letter from McWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 10 October 1992. K.N. Sircar became advisorto the Hasimara Tea Company after his retirement from the ITA but his membership of theITA proved invaluable to McWilliam in relationship to the 'reunion' with Alipurduar.

92. E-mail from Carolyn Nandy to Kausik Bandyopadhyay, 1 December 2003.93. Letter from McWilliam to 'The Principal', 10 October 1992.94. Ibid.95. Letter from S.P. Chakraborty to McWilliam, 12 January 1993.96. Letter from McWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 12 February 1993.97. Letter from McWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 15 October 1993.98. Ibid.99. Letter from McWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 10 November 1994: 'We still think of [the

McWilliam School] as "our school"'; letter from McWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 20December 1995: ' . . . This is just to give you the sad news that I have not been able so far tofind a source of money for you to help pay for the flood damage to 'our school"; letter fromMcWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 20April 1996: 'My wife joins me in sending you ourheartfelt thanks for all you have done for what we still think of as 'Our School'.'

100. Letter from McWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 4 September 1997. He wrote in the same letter,'I must thank you very much indeed for the wonderful larger photographs of the school as itnow is and for the books you sent to me too . . . I have already enjoyed the book with so manylovely photographs of the school buildings and classrooms . . . and even the old church inJalpaiguri where I used to go to services all those years ago . . .'.

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101. Letter of Janice McWilliam, daughter of P.N. McWilliam, to Mr. Sudhangshu Biswas,present Headmaster of the McWilliam School dated 9 May 2001. However, whetherMcWilliam prepared a 'will' to that effect or not, is doubtful. Carolyn Nandy has analtogether different story. According to her, 'When Peter died in July 1999, it is customary toask for donations to a charitable cause in lieu of flowers. This was done in the name of theMcWilliam Higher Secondary School. Five hundred pounds was given. This was not left inhis will to the school.' E-mail from Carolyn Nandy to Kausik Bandyopadhyay, 1 December2003; a letter from the Headmaster of the McWilliam High School dated 2 June 2000 toCarolyn Nandy confirmed that two students were to be given financial assistance while anextract appended from the School Council Meeting of 18 April 2000 proposed a formal voteof thanks to her and the opening of a monthly investment scheme account.

102. Letter from Janice McWilliam to Sudhangshu Biswas, 21 July 2001.103. Janice McWilliam sent a set of six prize certificates to that effect from Bristol with her letter

to the Headmaster of the school dated 12 June 2001. The certificate clearly stated it to be aSpecial Award for the most deserving student from The McWilliam Memorial Fund founded byRoma McWilliam in perpetual memory of her husband Peter N McWilliam founder of theMcWilliam School Alipurduar North Bengal in 1937.

104. Letter from A.K. Pakrashi to McWilliam, 10 June 1993, which offers evidence ofMcWilliam's earlier support for boys in Alipurduar. He paid their educational fees out of hisown pocket.

105. Letter from McWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 15 October 1993.106. Ibid.107. Letter from McWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 20 December 1995.108. Letter from McWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 20 April 1996.109. By an extraordinary coincidence Carolyn Nandy's husband, Dr Sekhar Nandy, was from

Jalpaiguri and his family still lives there.110. E-mail from Carolyn Nandy to Kausik Bandyopadhyay, 1 December 2003.111. Ibid.112. Letter from McWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 4 September 1997.113. Although there was no bust of McWilliam at the school, there is certainly a large portrait of

him in one of the main corridors, painted from a photograph sent by his nephew, MichaelWilliams. Telephone discussion between J.A. Mangan and Michael Williams, 7 January 2004.Sudhangshu Biswas, the present Headmaster of the school, has informed that installation of abust of the revered founder is being planned right now. Telephone discussion betweenKausik Bandyopadhyay and Sudhangshu Biswas, 19 February 2004.

114. J.A. Mangan, 'Britain's Chief Spiritual Export: Imperial Sport as Moral Metaphor, PoliticalSymbol and Cultural Bond' in J.A. Mangan (ed.), The Cultural Bond: Sport, Empire, Society(London: Frank Cass, 1992), p.8.

115. Joseph Cote, 'Imperialism and the Progressive Movement: Schooling in Colonial Sulawesi' inAntonio Novoa, Marc Depaepe and Ervin V. Johanning Meier (eds.), The Colonial Experiencein Education: Historical Issues and Perspectives, Supplementary Series Vol.1, Gent CSHP,1965, p.254.

116. Ibid.117. Ibid.118. Ibid.119. Ibid.120. Ibid.121. No written evidence has survived one way or the other. There is ample evidence of his

actions.122. Cote, 'Imperialism and the Progressive Movement', p.255.123. Letter from McWilliam to S.P. Chakraborty, 15 October 1993. See also note 125.124. Introduction to the video film of the Jubilee Ceremony by Professor Dipankar Banerji.125. Unquestionably one of the marking features of McWilliam's letters to S.P. Chakraborty is the

frequent reference to his deep love for Alipurduar, its people and its school, the happiness heexperienced in this town and the affection shown to him. These frequent references reveal thestrongest attachment to Alipurduar and this attachment in turn explains the strong response

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to him of the people of Alipurduar. Asked by his nephew, Michael Williams, in the interviewthat appeared in The Statesman, which he considered his golden years, he replied: 'Oh, I don'thave to think twice about that . . . they were the years that I spent in beautiful countryside andamong the wonderful people of North Bengal as Sub-Divisional Officer and later as theDeputy Commissioner of the Jalpaiguri District in the 1930s and 1940s. This was the greatprivilege of my life.' In his Funeral Address Michael Williams summed up succinctly hisuncle's love for his 'place': 'Alipur Duar held a very special place in Peter's heart. He alwaysreferred to his time there as the golden years and serving the people there the greatestprivilege of his life.'

126. Letter from the Members of the Managing Committee for the Final Primary School toMcWilliam dated 10.4.38.

127. Extracts from the meeting of the Managing Committee for the Final Primary Schoolacknowledging receipt of McWilliam's gift of books dated 14.2.62 and forwarded to him 'forfavour of his information'.

128. Letter from S.P. Chakraborty to McWilliam dated 25.10.92.129. Harold Perkin, 'Teaching the Nations How to Play: Sport and Society in the British Empire

and Commonwealth' in J.A. Mangan (ed.), The Cultural Bond, p.211.130. Ibid.131. Mangan, ' Imperial Origins - Beginnings ', p.13.132. Cannadine, Ornamentalism, p. 179.133. Lawrence James, Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India, p.646.134. Ibid.135. The intention of the English and Indian authors of this chapter.

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Imperial and post‐imperial congruence: A challenge to ideological simplification

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