Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t25.4

v2.c10.s2.t25.4

These diaries have also China as a backdrop and provide an elite Indian’s perspective on China and the Boxer Rebellion there. As a part of the Joint Foreign Expeditionary Force to suppress the rebellion, his Jodhpur Lancers under Sir Pratap Singh reached Hong Kong on September 9, 1900 and finally stationed in quarters at Shanhaiguan in Zhili province on October 12, 1900. They were followed by the Camel Corps under Maharaja Major Ganga Singh of Bikaner. Their forces were involved only in a few engagements with Boxers at Lijiabu. Staying there for a little more than eight months, the Lancers left China on July 2, 1901. Singh was however appalled by what he saw and experienced in China. He was bitter that in spite of his even relationship with the English Officers the Indians were looked upon as inferiors in the scale of humanity. “I would not like to be treated like a coolie,” the letter stated. Racial discrimination by other Europeans hurt him too. Plundering and brutality by the Expeditionary Force saddened him. He highlights the cruelty and mismanagement of Russians and their looting, killing and destruction of Chinese villages. Searching for arms in Boxer infested villages where all able bodied male have either been killed or fled, he wrote, “It is quite a shame to bring so many troops to fight or rather to frighten such poor and harmless women.” He felt guilty about bringing a mare and mule foal as a plunder which he happily returned when was ordered by the general to do so. He was appreciative of industriousness of Chinese and cleanliness of their village but found the city of Shanhaiguan ‘dirty and filthy’. He sums up contemporary problem of China by quoting an unnamed poet that, “Even heaven would be ruined if it had no master, if its masters were too many, or its masters were weak, a minor, or a woman. What then of the world? The same thing is happening in China. If under able hands, China can put in the field an army that would compete with any power in the world…” He recorded his China experiences with a balanced dexterity and provided a sympathetic picture of country.