#the raj

[illustratus]

The frontier between Afghanistan and British India

The western edge of the Raj was the border with Afghanistan on the Khyber Pass.

[totallysilvergirl]

Memento Vivere        updates

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22068892/chapters/53430073

Mydogwatson’s brilliant Victorian fic Memento Vivere starts with Mycroft Holmes as a little boy growing up in India, before being sent back to England to Eton. He leaves behind a little brother who is his closest, maybe his only, emotional tie.

This fic isn’t technically a WIP since it’s all written, and updates every Sunday and Thursday. It’s a masterpiece of voicing, taking us deftly into the mind and heart the careful, gifted, and solitary boy who will grow up to be the British Government.

The last chapter (Ch. 6) introduced us to John Watson, growing up in a London slum, as well as Mycroft’s baby brother back in India. I don’t know what today’s Ch. 7 will bring, but the author tells us that “time is going to start moving a little more quickly from this point,” so I can’t wait. (Chapter titles and epigraphs to die for, too.)

@missdaviswrites @shamelessmash @quantum-sparrow @disaronnus @prettyrealisticjohnlockfanart @pipmer @fearlessdiva930 @amindamazed @daringlydomestic @blogstandbygo @weneedtotalkaboutsherlock @onwallsiwrite @hubblegleeflower @ficwritersretreat2019 @totallysilvergirl @pippn-frodo @addictedstilltheaddict @headcumbernerd @vulgarweed @antheiasilva @mydogwatson @may-shepard @conversationswithjohnlock @ellipsical-elle @masked-alias @nautilicious @laughing-at-the-darkness @justacookieofacumberbatch @itsnotgonnareaditselfpeople @aquabelacqua @justacookieofacumberbatchtoo​ @iamjohnlocked4life

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[silentambassadors]

I don’t know if you knew this, but India is complex.  Even if we look at just the last, oh, 300 years, I know my head starts spinning, and that doesn’t even take into consideration the medieval and ancient history.  From the time of the British East India Company’s arrival (and all the other East India Companies sloping in from the west), a coherent Indian state was not even really imagined - the Indian subcontinent was (and still is) such a multinational region as to boggle the minds of many other parts of the world, where homogeneity reigns.  After the East India Company failed and floundered (in the late 1850s, largely as a result of the First Indian Revolution of 1857), the British introduced direct rule - i.e., the British Raj (which did not include, at least de jure, the Princely States, nor some of the other lingering colonial outposts).  Despite various nationalist attempts throughout the following century, it was not until Mohandas Gandhi’s peaceful resistance movement really gained traction across the land that India started to cohere, leading, eventually, to the establishment of the Dominion of India, followed shortly thereafter by the creation of the Republic of India.  [Of course, the Republic didn’t include a number of regions still claimed by other powers, and then the Partition of Pakistan (east and west) occurred, and from that the creation of Bangladesh, etc.]

Stamp details: Top left: Issued on: October 1, 1854 From: Calcutta, East India Company MC #4

Top right: Issued on: May 9, 1860 From: Calcutta, British Raj MC #15

Second row: Issued on: December 15, 1947 From: New Delhi, Dominion of India MC #185

Bottom left: Issued on: July 1, 1950 From: New Delhi, Republic of India MC #D118

Bottom right: Issued on: January 27, 2000 From: New Delhi, Republic of India MC #1735

Recognized as a sovereign state by the UN: Yes (since October 30, 1945) Official name: Republic of India; भारत गणराज्य Member of the Universal Postal Union: Yes (since July 1, 1876)

[bantarleton]

An East Indian Company Bengali regiment has its colours blessed by a regimental brahmin before going into battle, 1849.  

[fausto-giurescu]

DOLORES / WYATT by FAUSTO GIURESCU  INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | DEVIANTART

[cptablovegood]

The way the music at the beginning of Virtù e Fortuna is still the Westworld theme but altered to got the Indian park 👌👌👌

[novacollistar]

i am cosplaying as ramiz rafi mirza for world book day 2024.

i was talking to a friend about how in two books that i’ve read (this one and m.a bennett’s s.t.a.g.s) the indian characters are obvious about their opposition to the british empire. laughing, i told them something along the lines of “it’s like every brown person’s personality in the literature i read is being against the raj!” in a half joking way.

and they just gave me a look, which is when i realized half of my personality is talking about how the empire shaped south asia and the negative consequences of it was. whenever someone brings up the raj, i feel the urge to say something because even though a lot more light has been shed on the topic, it never feels like enough.

i wonder how ramy felt having to conform to a society that was built to hate him, keeping all this pain inside while making jokes and laughing along. perhaps why people talk about the empire a lot now is to speak for someone like ramy, whose voice was silenced by the one person he kept on trying to educate.

reading babel, especially when it focused on ramy, felt like reading about a relative, a friend. when he died, it felt like hundreds were dying with him in the same sort of circumstances, and feeling that pain of “it can’t be, but is is,” also felt like an old sort of pain, an ache that formed generations ago when the empire took over.

it is why literature like babel is so important. it allows for the reader to recognize themselves in the characters, it allows for more knowledge to be gained about something that needs to be talked about more.

for example, griffin was very relatable because he lost his identity in two different countries, continents, cultures. i cannot remember exactly how the book described it or even if it was meant to be seen in this way but this is how i interpret it: he lost the approval of his father, and therefore his worth. for me, it was akin to being told i am not indian enough, or that i am too white/british, that i can’t speak my language (even though i can) which caused me to be too embarrassed to even attempt speaking it. in the other direction, eating with my hands at a restaurant being awkward, having to watch videos where comments are filled with bots making fun of indians, racism towards south asians in general being ignored.

both sides act like i should either promote indian culture or british culture as if it is a tug of war, and sometimes i feel like i am seeking approval just like griffin was.

i fear losing both cultures partly because i don’t want to be ridiculed by anyone, and i find that upsetting. just as i should be allowed to exist whether or not i can speak my native tongue, participate in both indian and british cultures, etc so should have griffin been allowed to exist.

but he became isolated, ostracized and alone. he was punished.

babel is continuing to break my heart, and to honor that world book day is going to be taken over by ramy. i know the post is mostly about griffin, but ramy is my favorite character, and must be celebrated.

(if i got the lore wrong, i apologize, this was written very hastily and is mainly just ramblings. feel free to add any thoughts and correct me if i’ve incorrectly written something about the book).